


The Little Fairy

by LadyWhyFi



Category: The Little Mermaid (1989), Winx Club
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-01
Updated: 2018-05-21
Packaged: 2018-07-19 11:43:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 26,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7359913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyWhyFi/pseuds/LadyWhyFi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Disney’s: The Little Mermaid story gets mixed with Winx Club characters.<br/>Fairies grow smaller and fit into your hand. Contact with the human world is forbidden.<br/>Every fairy knows this. But our little Flora was never one to follow rules, as the human world interested her way too much. Bringing trouble to herself and her sisters.<br/>A certain Prince called Helia is only making things worse! Hoping he could somehow become "Part of her world"...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Two Parties

**Author's Note:**

> It's an adaption of Disney's Little Mermaid. I really liked the story and this idea popped into my head two years ago. My very first story, now brought on AO3. Hope you enjoy it here as much as you enjoy it on the other sites…  
> Enjoy!

"We are almost there!" said a young boy with long dark blue hair and light blue eyes. While he wrestled his way through the rough forest.

"Ugh, Helia. Why so far away?!" Riven (3rd in line) followed right behind his youngest brother. His red gelled up hair had been caught by some branches and tried to break free.

"Yeah, man. Couldn't you have done like, it in the castle?" Brandon (second oldest) chuckled at seeing Riven wiggling free and decided to help him. The short brown haired boy got him out with ease.

"Come on you guys, you know how he is with nature. It's a wonder he didn't pack his sketchbook." Sky (the oldest) put his blonde bangs behind his ears so he could see the incoming branches better.

"Laugh all you want, I know you'll love this!" and excited Helia lead them through various unknown parts of the wood until they came to a clearing. It was a large circle with soft green grass in the middle and a tree here and there.

People where hard at work putting up tents, tables and seats. The cooks where in the middle of cooking and cursing because of the basic means and tools at their possession.

"Finally, what took you so long?!" Timmy (2nd youngest) adjusted his glasses while sitting on a rock and not even looking up, his face was hidden behind his orange hair while he was looking at his laptop.

  
 "What? How did he get here so fast?! How did everyone get here!" The red head yelled a little outraged.

  
Roy (4th in line) bumped into him his arms loaded with firewood and put them next to Timmy.

"How do you think smart brain, we went by car. Now if you are done nagging, the tents still need to be put up." the short haired blonde walked back to the cars to get more supplies.

"What? How? Why? How come they get the car and we get stuck hiking with art boy here?!"

Sky and Brandon looked at each other and then at Helia. "You don't mean..." The blonde one started.

Helia grinned. "Yes! I finally got you to go hiking with me! Best present ever guys!"

Brandon face palmed with a grin and Sky whistled in disbelief. "You got us there little brother." He looked around. "So, how come Roy and Timmy didn't come?"

Helia shrugged his shoulders. "Roy figured out what was going on and would have spoiled the whole hiking trip thing if he joined, you know how he is. And Timmy... well... he's Timmy."  
  
"I would have preferred a car ride too you know! I'm sweaty and I'm full of mosquito bites at places I didn't even know I had! You're lucky it's your birthday little brother, or I would have-"  
Brandon took Riven's arm and dragged him to the car. "Easy tiger, Let the kid have his fun. By the way the quicker we help them set things up for the party, the faster we can get to the food!"

And with a small 'hmpf' Riven started helping putting up the tents. Brandon knew he'd get his younger brother convinced with food.

Helia looked around. He loved nature. The trees, the flowers, the plants, the animals,... Sky was right, why didn't he bring his sketchbook. Maybe it was in one of the cars.

Helia wanted to turn to the cars when he saw something in the corner of his eye.

He turned around again to look what it was and saw something shiny zooming out of sight.

"What was..."

"You saw that too?!"

Helia still looked at the place it vanished and slowly turned his head to Timmy. "Yeah, I think so... What was that?"

"I don't know, that's what I've been trying to find out." He pressed some more keys on his keyboard and adjusted his glasses once more.

"This might sound crazy but..."

"But what, Timmy?" Helia went closer to the orange haired boy and put his own hand on Timmy's shoulder.

  
"What is that?" He pointed to a picture on Timmy's laptop screen and leaned in closer.

It was a wall carving of a young girl, it was in sepia colours so you couldn't see how it was supposed to look, but she was beautiful. With long flowing hair and long legs in a short dress. She had wings on her back almost as big as herself. She smiled.

"That, Helia, is a fairy! I've been looking them up ever since I got here! I think I saw one on our way over... and just now too. I think we are so deep in the forest they might actually be around."

"You seriously believe in that Timmy? Seems awfully irrational for you." Helia stood up straight again and looked the picture from afar.

"I don't know, but according to this, Today is a special day for fairies, tonight is an empty moon and there will be almost no light to give them away, so they can come out without anyone seeing them."

"I guess they didn't take us into account then!" Roy decided to sit next to Timmy for a short break.

"Yeah, this place will be so bright with all those light that it would seem like day." Sky adjusted his last lamp to the tent and joined the others. He looked at the screen.

"Now that's a beauty if I see one. I wish human girls looked like that!" Riven shoved Roy aside to see the image better. Earning a "Hey!" in his ear.

"What are you all up to?" Brandon asked while he decided to check what all his brothers where doing hunched up together.

"WHOA! Nice legs!" He exclaimed as soon as he saw the picture and then winked to the youngest (Helia).

Helia shook his head with a smile. They are unbelievable.

"All right boys, enough playing around. We have work to do!" A stern looking woman clapped her hands and came closer to the 6 brothers. She had sleek dark brown hair and pointy blue glasses which made her look even more terrifying.

They all moaned and got up.

"I betcha don't like those pair of legs huh?" Riven nudged Brandon in his sides.

Brandon made a gagging sound and everyone stared laughing with an "Eww" following the laughter.

Helia stopped and turned around again to take one more look at the place he saw "the fairy".

He then shook his head with a smile and followed his brothers to the tents.

\----------------------

A little pink long haired fairy was hiding for her life behind some leaves. Boy that was close.

Who knew there would be human this deep into the forest! It's a good thing her green outfit made her blend in with the leaves so well.

She must tell the Queen about this. But maybe not today. She knew how much the Queen was against humans. And she couldn't make her angry today. No, definitely not today.

Roxy looked one more time at the humans and decided it was safe to get away. She quickly dive deeper into the forest staying low on the ground.

She flew for a bit until she stared to see a little light in sight. She followed the light until she got to a small (big for her) dome in the middle of the forest. The Dome was covered in leaves so it wouldn't be to noticeable for "uninvited guests" AKA humans. Roxy flew inside.

Inside the dome, a party was about to start as well. One that has been planned for ages. The Fairy Queens 100th birthday. The room was filled with thousands of fairies and pixies. It was dark orange with light green lines from the inside but filled with lights which gave a cheerful and happy mood.

Everyone was putting in the last touches for the grand show. The Musical!

The Pixies Tune and Digit where the biggest stars here, along with the 6 daughters of the Queen.

Tune was going to be the conductor for the songs Musa put together. Hence Musa was in the show, so she couldn't help out otherwise. She was putting her light purple hair in order so she looked presentable. She was the pixie of Etiquette so she had to look well at all times.

Digit made sure everything was at it's place. And looked if everyone was doing what they were supposed to do. She kept looking at her display board (what do you expect from the pixie of nanotechnology), and sighted.

Pixie Amore took care of the decorations and the stage. She was the pixie of love, so there were a LOT of red flowers everywhere.

The Stage was amazing. It was filled with flowers and instruments. Something felt out of place though. A ball of light, a ball of fire and a bubble ball hovered above the stage, along with a musical note that danced around.

It was Pixie Lockette job to take care of all the guests and guided them to their appointed seats. She was doing this very swiftly. She was off course the pixie of Portals so she knew her way around.

Piff was... well... asleep somewhere. Not unusual for the pixie of SweetSleep.

And Chatta, the pixie of Chatter, was supposed to announce everyone but was nowhere to be seen.

  
"Has anyone seen Chatta?!" a worried Digit came flying through the crowd looking around in panic.

"No, I haven't seen her since this morning?" Lockette guided the last of the guests away.

"She'll be here soon, don't worry." Amore flew in next to Digit and patter her on her back.

Tune joined them. "Well, she'd better hurry! The Queen could be here any mo-" Tune didn't even get to put her hands in her side before they got interrupted by the sound of trumpets. The Pixies all looked at the entrance. Even Piff woke up and looked.

"Oh no! She's here! Places everyone! Amore! You announce her!" Digit was freaking out now.

Amore nodded her head with and awkward smile and took the microphone. She swallowed.

Time to wing it!

"Fairies and Fairiefolk, please have a warm welcome to her highness Queen Faragonda!" she yelled into the Digit's version of a microphone.

The room erupted into cheers and clapping.

Queen Faragonda glided down from the highest entrance and landed gracefully in front of her appointed chair. With her beautiful wings, with different shades of blue and grey, made her a sight to behold. (Yes, she has wings in this story, Because I can!)

She had her white hair into a lose bun and smiled warmly. She waved at the people below. She wore a simple blue dress and had a white rose in her hair.

Digit flew up to her. "Your Highness!" She bowed.

"Ah Digit, I trust everything is going as planned? I'm looking forward to your show." She said, looking around at the decorations. "You've really outdone yourself, ladies."

Her eyes hovered to the stage and saw the strange items on the stage. She rose her eyebrow and smiled to herself.

Digit swallowed. "We've had a few hiccups your highness, but everything should be fine now!"

"Good, good." She walked up to her balcony.

"My dearest fairies. Thank you for coming to this special day! I hope everyone will enjoy themselves. I hereby announce the feast has begun!" She rose her arms up in the sky and shot a giant ball of glittery sparkles up into the sky. Making it land on everything below. The people clapped in awe of the sight. Cheers filled the room again.

Amore placed the microphone to her lips once more.

"Is everyone ready?!" She yelled into the mic.

More cheering inside the dome.

"Then please get your hands together to our lovely stars and main characters for tonight's show!"

More cheers.

Digit face palmed. What was she saying... we needed quietness for it to begin.

Slowly, the instruments started to tune their strings and the room slowly fell quiet.

Digit looked at the Queen.

Queen F. (I'll be using this now) sat down on her chair and looked at the stage with a smile across her face.

Thank god, she didn't notice.

She sighted and nodded at a confused Tune.

Tune mustered a smile and nodded back. She turned to the musicians. She tapped her stand and raised her stick.

  
The music began.

One by one, 6 fairies entered the stage. Each in their own special way...

Stella, the oldest, appeared out of the ball of shining light.

Bloom, the second oldest, came out of the ball of fire.

Tecna, 3rd in line, appeared with a vertical twist out of thin air.

Aisha, 4th in line, popped out of the shiny bubble.

and Musa, the 2nd youngest, transformed back into herself from the music note.

_We are Faragonda's Daughters!  
The Queen of the Fairies who taught us well._

_  
Here's Stellaaaa-_

(You-might-know-her-she's-the-loudest-of-us-all!) ~chuckled Bloom  
"HEY?!"

_Meet Bloom!_  
(She's-the-nicest-and-will-help-you-when-you-fall!) ~smiled Techna  
"Awww!"

_There's Musa  
_ (She'll-sing-and-play) ~ Aisha winked at Musa

_Aisha  
_ (She'll-dance-all-day) ~Musa winked back to Aisha

_For Tecna_  
(Get-her-Display!) ~Stella pointed to Tecna who was checking the sound statistics for a second to see if everything was going to plan.  
"NO!"

Digit hid behind her hands and whispered: "Nooooo..."

They got back into the song.

_But that's not all!  
There is a youngest that we have not got to yet_

-A Beautiful pink flower rose up from out of nowhere-

_She'll get you in all kinds of trouble that you will regret.  
But inside this flower lies a beautiful aura._

-The flower began to open and the 5 fairies circled around the flower-

_Meet our sister! Flo-_

The music stopped and the now silent room filled itself with gasps.

Digit face palmed and Tune put both of her hands on her cheeks in panic. Amore fainted and Lockette caught her. Piff simply blinked her eyes in confusion.

The sisters looked at the now open empty flower, then to each other in panic and then to their mother.

The Queen rose slowly from her seat with anger across her face.

"FLOOOOORAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"


	2. Ruined

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When you loose track of time. And a bird decides to help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nothing to special. Just some nessesary fillings...

At the same time, a little further, at the outskirts of the forest, a Little light was flying trough some leaves.

"We're almost there Chatta!" she said as she quickly zoomed past, under and above several branches.

A little pixie was not far behind her trying to catch up.

"Not so fast Flora! You know I can't fly as fast as you!" she dodged another branch and then suddenly bumped into something.

"Ouch! Why’d you-"

"We're here!" she exclaimed happily.

Chatta looked over her shoulder.

"Whoa!" she managed to blurt out.

“I know, right!" Flora looked at her bonded pixie with sparkles in her eyes.

They slowly flew closer.

Before them where gigantic (for her) ruins of a lost village. Abandoned ages ago. There was a lot of debris, but a few of the houses where still standing. Some with a roof, others without. Most of the doors where gone. The wood had rotten over the ages and where just piles on the floor.

They were small houses. Most not bigger than a room, a kitchen and a place they would have called a bathroom at a time. There was a bathhouse separate for the rich people.

"Oh, I've always wanted to go there" Flora said as she flew past it. "Just soak in a bath for ages and only coming out when you wanted it too."

Chatta shook her head. “You know you'd have no privacy, it was public!" She emphasised on the word public.

"Oh, and how would you know that, miss know it all?" Flora retorted while she turned to see her pixie.

"Roxy told me!" Chatta had said in an a-matter-a-fact tone. They both know that that would settle the case. If anyone knew more about humans than anyone else. It would be Roxy. For she was in charge of leading them astray if they where to come to close to their borders.

Flora shook her head smiling. Her long brown hair bouncing around while she did this. Her yellow bangs that silhouetted her face stood in place though.

They continued to look around. It would seem as if they were looking for something. But didn't know what.

They flew inside and back outside of the houses, an awe of everything they would see. Sometimes they would linger a little longer on one of the drawings as they saw people hugging or chatting to each other. Sometimes there would even be a picture left. Of a loving family and they would be happy on that picture.

"I really don't see why mother disapproves of humans like that. They seem so nice... and they have such wonderful stuff!" Flora had just left the picture for what it was and had flown into a half open closet.

"CHATTA! I found one!" she yelled loudly and seemed really excited.

Chatta got startled by the loud scream and hurried to her fairy.

"I don't think you have this one yet Flora!" She said happily.

"No, I don't think so either! And look! It has a floral pattern!" she flew closer to the object. And flew around it to take a closer look.

"What do you think it is?" she asked, not even looking at Chatta.

"I don't know, but Roxy will!" Chatta replied.

"You're right! I'll take it with me!" she rubbed her hands and mumbled something to herself.

Chatta flew backwards a bit. She knew this was the tricky part.

Flora was done with her spell and put her hands in front of her releasing a white ball. As it moved closer to the object Flora wished to herself it would work.

The moment the ball hit the object it started to shrink. Making Flora exclaim a large "Yes!" before it shrunk into her size.

Chatta clapped her hands. “Well done Flora! Too bad it's not permanent. How long do you think this one will last?"

"For about 2 hours I think. You can never be too sure. Too bad it only works on inanimate objects huh?"

"No way, you'd turn me even smaller than I already am!" Chatta shivered in fear.

"Or Bigger!" She added, having second thoughts.

Flora chuckled as she picked up the fork and examined the floral pattern on it. She put it in her pink satchel, wondering what else they would find. They set out to find some more human stuff to add to her collection.

They looked around some more and started to get a little bit tired as they found nothing else.

"All right, just one more and then we will head back to the city, I can feel the spell on this one won't last 2 hours." She added with worry in her voice.

"Music to my ears." sighted an exhausted pixie.

"Music?" Flora stopped dead in her tracks. "MUSIC?!" She looked at Chatta with panic in her voice.

"THE MUSICAL!" She screamed as she pulled her hair.

"That was today?! I thought it was next week?!" Chatta put her hands on her cheeks as she calculated the days in her head.

"My Sisters are going to kill me!" Flora face palmed to herself as she turned around on the spot and started to fly back to the exit.

"Your sisters? The pixies will kill ME!" Chatta cried as she followed suit.

They were so occupied they flew into the open without any shelter. Forgetting to be careful they suddenly heard a screech.

Flora looked up in panic to be reminded of the natural enemies of fairies. A hawk.

It quickly dived as it saw its afternoon snack and decided to himself not to let it get away.

Flora screamed and dove into the first bush she could find. The hawk only missing her by an inch.

Chatta was nowhere to be seen.

"Chatta?" she quickly whispered.

"Over here!" She heard coming from behind.

As she turned around she got glomped by a little pixie and made a back flip in the sky.  They hugged for a little bit and looked up at the hawk.

It circled high up in the sky around them. This was not going to be easy. But then again. Returning home wasn't going to be either.

 

-

 

"I have an idea!" Chatta flew up and down excited.

Flora looked at her bonded pixie thoughtfully before replying.

"All right, let's hear it." She settled on a branch. They knew they were safe where they were now. Inside a small bush with a lot of leaves to hide behind.

They could wait it all out. But they were in a hurry. They had to get home as fast as possible. The longer they stayed away, the worse everything was going to get. The hawk was still circling above them. Silently... quietly...

"We split up. We both fly the other way and we make it confused!" She happily exclaimed.

Flora gasped. "No way! You're not fast enough, if it goes after you, you'll never be able to out fly it! No, Not happening! Uhuh! NOPE! NADA!" She shook her head violently.

"We'll just fly from bush to bush and hope she won't see us." Flora looked up at the hawk circling above.

Chatta looked down. "All right... If you say so..."

Flora picked up Chatta. "Sweetie, You know I'm only doing this for you. He's too quick! I'd never get over it if anything happened to you because of me."

Chatta nodded and tried to smile.

Flora nodded as well.

"Okay, We'll fly to that bush over there on Go. We'll have to be quick." She pointed to a bush a few meters away from the one they were in.

"Gotcha." the pixie nodded again.

"3" Flora whispered.

"2"

"1"

Chatta mumbled something but Flora couldn't hear it.

"Go!"

FLORA P.O.V.

Flora shot out of the bush and didn't look up at all. She just had one purpose in front of her, The other bush.

She heard a screech, "Here he comes" She thought. Flora closed her eyes, took a deep breath and increased her speed.

Something was wrong. She heard another screech, but it was not towards her.

She decided to look up. It wasn't there! "Where did it go?!"

Then it came to her.

"CHATTA!" she yelled.

CHATTA'S P.O.V.

"Gotcha." She nodded again.

"3" Flora whispered.

"2"

"1"

"I'd never get over it either" Chatta mumbled.

"Go!"

She saw Flora shoot out of the bush. Chatta made a twist in the air and shot out of the bush the other way.

The little pixie flew as fast as she could. She could see a bush in front of her. But it was far... really far... would she make it? She heard a screech.

She knew it would go after her. She might be smaller, but the hawk would know she would be slower too.

"As long as Flora makes it to the bush. I might be able to lose it close to the ground." Chatta thought.

She quickly flew down, closer to the ground, her 2 blonde ponytails waving in the wind. She didn't dare to look up. Though she was curious, did she still have time?

She heard another screech. It was right above her!

She heard Flora yell her name.

No P.O.V.

Flora saw Chatta right below the hawk. The bird was still diving down at great speed.

She gasped and flew after them.

The hawk' shadow on the floor grew larger and larger. Chatta was getting seriously scared. She decided to try it differently.

Chatta suddenly took a turn to the left and kept flying again.

She heard another screech and sighted in relief. This worked.

But she knew it would be only for a second or two. For she saw the shadow grew larger again.

Chatta had no idea where to go anymore. Except for the tree line. She was actually quite close right now, if only she had a little more time... speed... almost... there...

Chatta looked up while still flying. The hawk was now right on top of her. She would never make it.

The little pixie closed her eyes in defeat and waited for the sharp fangs to grab her.

When the moment came she suddenly felt 2 strong arms hug her tight and she heard a loud bang.

She opened her eyes as she saw a hawk lying on the ground, wings spread apart and a large branch shaking right above it.

"Wha-..." she started, as she looked up at her saviour. It was Flora.

Flora had caught her mid air while she was flying towards them. Grabbing her right from under the fangs. The bird had looked backwards at Flora not watching where it went and flew straight into a branch.

The brunette simply smiled at her pixie and hugged her. "Don't you ever try doing that again, you hear?!"

Chatta smiled and hugged her back. "Never, that was way too scary..."

Flora let her go and flew towards the forest, Once they were past the tree line they were safe. Chatta flew to the hawk. Whom had now opened his eyes and looked around confused.

"You big bully!" The small pixie yelled, and she stuck out her tongue.

The hawk screeched again, startling Chatta and making her fly after Flora at top speed.

Flora chuckled. "You're such a scaredy cat."

"I am not!" Chatta pouted as they flew deeper into the forest, heading back home.

They saw the dome coming up in front of them. They were almost home.

Flora suddenly stopped, making Chatta look at her confused.

The brunette looked at her satchel and put her hand in it. Then looked around her in panic.

Chatta clapped her hands in front of her mouth. "It's changing back, isn't it?" she whispered.

Flora nodded quickly and flew the other way, her hand still in her satchel. They had wasted to much time on the hawk.

She looked around and found a hole in the ground. "This will have to do. " She sighted, half in relief, half out of spite.

She didn't like leaving the item here in the open. But she couldn't bring it inside either. If her mother knew where she had been. She'd be in worse shape than she already was.

She took out the item she had found in the ruins and carefully placed it in the hole. She covered it with a lot of leaves and dirt and prayed to herself it would not surface when it grew.

She clapped the dirt of her hands and looked at the now covered hole.

"It's really too bad you're going to have to wait before you can put the spell on it again..." Chatta sighted.

"Yes, about 3 hours before the magic residue runs off after the transformation back. Then I can put the same spell on it again." She flew up next to Chatta.

"Can't you put any other spell on it?" Chatta asked, seeing her fly closer.

"I can..." The brunette added thoughtfully. "But I don't know what effect it will give... this is safer."

They both nodded to each other and sighted.

"Time to face punishment."


	3. Rage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sisterly love and a mothers concern.

"Just wait until I get my hands on that little-" Stella put her hands in front of her and made them into almost fists.

"Easy there, sis." Bloom put her hand on the blonde's shoulder.

"But she ruined it! She'll have some explaining to do! Especially if she ran off with some guy I didn't even get to judge!" Stella yelled putting her hands in her hair, obviously freaking out.

"I'm confused, she went off with some guy? Who?" Tecna looked up from her display board and took in the scene.

Everyone but Stella and Tecna laughed.

"No, silly, Stella's daydreaming again. We don't know where she is or whom she's with. My guess is she's with Chatta." Musa chuckled.

"This is no time to be laughing! I have never seen mother so angry before!" The now fuming blonde put her foot down angrily, her red/pinkish heels now matching her face. This would have made a sound, had they not been hovering in the air, right outside the palace.

The palace was enormous. The walls were completely gold on the out- and inside. It had 8 spikey towers rising into the sky. 4 smaller ones, 3 taller ones and one big one in the middle, which was the highest. If you would look up at the palace from above, it would be round/square-ish with the spikes nicely spread.

The little twinkle coming off the golden palace now and then gave the sign that the hidden spell, put on by the lovely Queen F, was still in place. So they knew there were well protected.

The Winx (a name the 6 sisters had given themselves, to make them more cooler than 'Faragonda's daughters' everyone kept saying to them) were outside one of the smaller towers, because this lead to their rooms. They figured their little sister would pass this first before heading to the throne room, the highest tower.

"Yeah, my ears are still ringing from all of her yelling." Aisha rubbed the inside of her ear while closing one eye and pulling a face of pain.

"Just, don't be too hard on her Stell, she'll get that enough from mom." Bloom started.

"I'm not even talking to her anymore! Hmpf!" and with that, Stella turned away from them crossing her arms and lifting her chin with her eyes closed.

"Oh, come on, I'm sure she's got a great excuse to-" The redhead got cut off by some noise behind her.

They all looked in the direction of the sound.

"Hey girls..." A brown haired fairy appeared from out of the leaves. Her pink with green ruffled skirt was covered in leaves and so was her hair. She slowly flew to the group wearing an awkward smile and her hand up in the air as greeting.

Stella had opened her mouth to yell but then closed it again. Then shook her head.

Bloom and Tecna wanted to greet their little sister but got stopped by Musa and Aisha. They shook their heads.

"The silent treatment huh..." Flora sighted. "Is mother really angry?"

"Go see for yourself..." Musa answered, and with that, they parted a bit leading a way into the palace.

Flora didn't say anything and followed the way they had just made. Entering the palace.

The Winx looked at each other and then to Flora. She looked really guilty and felt a little bad for her. Because she would get punished severely for this.

She had after all ruined their mothers' birthday party they had been planning for months.

Curiosity getting the better of them, they decided to follow Flora inside.

-

Flora was in front of the door to the throne room. She landed on the blue carpet in front of it and looked at the big double door. She breathed in, and back out, closed her eyes and put her hand on the handle.

Slowly opening the door, she had heard a voice coming out of the room.

" -hy Yes, Your highness. They are very close to our borders. But they don't seem to be searching for us. It only seems like they want to use that clearing for one day and then be off."

Flora peeked inside.

A pink haired fairy had her back turned to her. She was on one knee, looking up at a blue throne. It was a magnificent throne, that seemed to have come out of the ground in a single sweep. Not one line out of place and in perfect symmetry.

In that throne was the queen of all the fairies. She had not changed her outfit from before and still had her flower in her hair. But her loose bun had become a little more loose than before and she had not found the time to redo her hair after the yelling she had done to her daughters.

She seemed more are ease now though. Seemed...

"Very well, Do you think I should put on more protective barriers just in case?" She had asked the kneeling fairy.

"I do not think that is necessary. I think they will get more suspicious if you put on more confusion spells around this place." The pink haired fairy rose to stand up, but kept looking at the Queen.

"I understand and I will take your advice into consideration. Thank you for reporting this, Roxy. You may go now." She waved her hand towards the door without looking at it. She put 2 fingers on her temples now rubbing them and sighted.

Roxy bowed once more and took a step back. Before turning away the queen spoke again.

"Oh and Roxy." Queen F. added quietly.

Roxy turned fully to her again.

"Go and enjoy the feast. We still have plenty of food left." She smiled softly looking Roxy in the eyes. Putting both of her hands on her armchairs.

Roxy smiled  back a bit and nodded. She turned to the door to see the brunette standing in the doorway.

"Flora!" The pink fairy had exclaimed surprised.

The Queen stood up immediately and looked at the door.

"Hi..." Flora almost whispered now. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything?..." She bowed.

"No, not at all, I was just excused." Roxy walked towards her, put her hand on her shoulder and whispered: 'Good luck.' It was barely hearable. Roxy had already let go of Flora's shoulder and her hand on the door, before Flora could thank her.

The pink haired one gave her a reassuring smile and closed the door behind her.

Flora looked in front of her again and looked at her mother.

Queen F. looked at her youngest daughter with stern eyes, beckoning her closer.

Flora obeyed and quickened her pace towards the throne. She bowed once she was in front of it and the Queen sat back down. Leaning her elbow on one of her armchairs and her fist on her cheek.

"Well?" The Queen started, waiting for an answer.

"uhm." Flora started.

"I'm so sorry. I totally forgot. I don't know what came over me. I was just flying around, looking for flowers and other things and I totally forgot the time. I didn't even remember it was today. I wasn't thinking. I don't know what I can do to make it up to you-..." Flora kept on rambling and rambling.

The Queen just sat quietly in her chair until she was done.

'I see' was all she had said. Queen F. stood up and walked past her youngest daughter.

Flora looked at her mother confused. That's it?! No speech? No Yelling? No Punishment? Nothing?

"Are... aren't you angry?" She carefully asked.

"I was." Queen F. answered still turned away.

"Now I am just happy you are all right." Queen F. turned to her daughter and smiled.

Flora couldn't believe her luck. This was it? No consequences? This turned out better than she thought.

Flora opened her eyes to say something, but was interrupted.

"It's not her fault your highness!"

The yell echoed trough the throne room. Flora looked up to see where it came from and would face palm if she wasn't in the presence of her mother.

A little blonde haired pixie flew down from one of the windows heading straight for the queen.

She apparently had escaped the clutches and yells from her fellow pixies and decided to go help Flora instead. A noble cause. Had it not for that Flora didn't need any help.

"What isn't?" The Queen asked a little amused.

"She was trying to escape it, we didn't hear it coming at all. Was it not for Flora's quick thinking we might've-" Flora had quickly put her hand in front of the chatting pixie before she made everything worse.

"Didn't hear what coming?!" The Queen asked surprised.

"Nothing mother." Flora quickly added.

"Flora." The Queen said this rather quiet, but Flora could hear that her voice was shaking. She was holding in anger.

Flora sighted.

"We were attacked by a hawk." Flora looked down in shame.

"YOU WERE WHAT?!" The Queen yelled so loud, that the palace floor shook and the 5 fairies and pixies listening behind the door got startled and had knocked it open, rolling inside.

This had startled the Queen, Flora and Chatta.

They were all to flabbergasted to say anything and looked at flora with their mouths open.

The Queen looked at the Winx and then back to Flora, waiting for more explaining.

Flora told the whole story. With Chatta adding minor details. Leaving out what they had found or where they were off course.

Queen F. sat down on her throne again in shock.

"But nothing happened. I mean. We are all right!" Flora added.

The silence seemed to last ages. No one dared to speak. The Winx didn't even dare to move and stand up.

"That means you where in a clearing." The Queen added quietly.

Flora looked down and nodded.

"That means you disobeyed my orders, because you know it is forbidden to be in a clearing without guards or an order from me!" She started to raise her voice.

Flora closed her eyes and looked like she was in pain, not looking up. -Why was a clearing so bad?-

"What if you got seen by something else! Those humans?!" The queens voice was shaking now.

-Oh that's why- wait a minute...-"Humans?" Flora asked. "What humans? Are there humans in the-..."

"THERE ARE NOT!" The Queen rose from her seat. "AND YOU ARE NOT TO CUMMUNICATE WITH THEM AT ANY COST!"

Flora backed away a little bit and nodded quickly.

The Queen sat down again and put her hand on her forehead. She sighted.

"Go, freshen up." she added quietly. "You 10 as well." She had pointed to the fairies and pixies still lying on the ground.

"Go to the party and get some food." She adjusted herself in her seat.

"Flora you are bound to the palace grounds for a week. You are only to get food right now and go straight to your room. Your sisters will keep an eye on you for this whole week and you will not seek out any clearings. Is that understood?" She looked Flora straight into her eyes.

"Yes, your highness." Flora nodded sadly.

The brunette turned around and walked towards the door, The little pixie following her closely. The Winx had gotten up and Stella had put out her hand to put around Flora's shoulder. She wasn't mad anymore, especially after this. She was dying to hear the full story though.

- 

After telling the story to her sisters (still leaving our she had found something and brought it here) they were laughing at the whole thing and asking about how scared she was.

The Winx had decided that if Flora was not allowed to go to the party, they would not stay late as well.

They off course had no choice to show their faces, but as soon as that was done, they were doing a slumber party in Flora's chambers.

"So it wasn't a guy." Stella slumped into Flora's bed hugging a pillow. Her pink pyjama pants were covered with little red hearts. Her orange top was the same colour as her hair ribbons that kept her 2 ponytails intact.

"Oh yes, it was!" Flora sighted dreamily. She was wearing a green sleeping dress with pink ruffles on the bottom. "And he was so dreamy, with those big wings and all those feathers. He couldn't keep his hands off me!"

They all laughed and Stella hit Flora with her pillow.

"Or me!" Chatta yelled.

They all laughed again.

Flora was happy she and her sisters were talking again. She was having fun. So much even that she almost forgot about the item. Almost.

She looked outside and then looked at Chatta. Chatta caught her quick glance and nodded.

And with that. They had decided they would sneak out tonight and go get the item.


	4. Busted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A relevation and a startle.

Flora opened one eye and looked around.  
Darkness.  
She then opened the other and slowly got up. Her sheets moving off her in the process.  
Her eyes started to adjust to the darkness and she started to see shapes. 6 Tiny beds where floating around in her room, occupied by little pixies.  
Looking around a little more she had to chuckle a little.

Next to her desk a brown haired Fairy was lying remarkably uncomfortable on a blow up bed, with one leg up the desk and the other on the bed. Oh, Aisha.

Stella was sprawled all over her own (king sized) bed and hogging most of the sheets.

Tecna had brought a little survival bed in. She was hugging her pillow and her sheets where tangled around her legs.

Though to her surprise Musa and Bloom where sleeping quite normally, though Musa was humming something in her sleep. Figures.

Flora yawned softly and quietly got out of bed, trying not to wake up any of her sleeping sisters.

She almost tripped over a pair of heels she could not tell whom they were from due to the lack of colour in the room.

As if going through a minefield she made her way to the floating yellow bed, nearest to the door.

"Chatta." She whispered.

Something moved with an "hnnng."

"Chatta!" She said a whispered a little louder now nudging the bed a little.

As soon as she poked the blonde pixie she got up slowly rubbing one eye. "Wha-? Flo...ra...?"  
She yawned.

The brown haired fairy smiled. "Yes, are you awake?"

"Y-Yeah, I think so... What's up?" She rubbed both eyes once more before looking at her fairy.

"I think now is the perfect time to go get the... thing." Flora looked out the window, it was an empty moon, which meant almost no night light.  
Fortunately for Flora, this meant not getting caught that easily.

"What about them?" Chatta pointed to the room.

"They'll probably be asleep for the remainder of the night, we'll be back before they notice."

She sounded excited. Chatta doubted if this was such a good idea but decided to go along with her fairy.

"All right. But we will be quick, right? You know you aren't allowed out of the castle."

"That's why we need to go now. I love my sisters but I also know they are my... bodyguards..." Flora looked at her feet. But recovered quickly and quietly put her hands together.

"C'mon, let's go already!"

The cold air of the night that hit her in the face was like an Instant wake-up call.  
Chatta yawned again next to her.

"You still remember where it was?" the little pixie asked a little more awake then before.

"Yes, I think so." Flora looked around from the top of the palace balcony.

Small lights where lit in some random rooms of the high towers. There where lights aligned on the forest floor, showing a wavy line, indicating there was a road there.

She saw a few fairies flying around the palace borders, obviously guards. Staying away from those was the key to escape.

"C'mon." She quietly whispered. She instantly "poofed" out her wings on her back. She loved doing that, it’s what made walking and sleeping easier and it made a funny soft sound.

She hovered above the balcony floor timing her escape between palace guards. Timing is everything. But she had done this so many times it almost seemed like a video game. She made sure Chatta hadn't fallen asleep again before she decided to speed out of there and looked at her pixie friend.

Chatta had awaken fully and had that playful gleam in her eyes. She nodded to her fairy friend and smiled.

Flora looked in front of her once more and out of nowhere sped into the night.

 

* * *

 

"OH MY GOD! That was so close!" She giggled while she hid behind a tree. Taking a few leaves out of her brown locks.

Chatta rolled out of a bush and stared into the distance for a few seconds.

"Are you okay?" Flora was still half smiling while she tried to sound concerned.

"I'm NEVER doing that again!" Chatta tried to whisper, but it came out pretty loud. She couldn't hide her small smile though.

"That's what you always say!" Flora chuckled. "Come on."

They walked (Chatta hovered) a little bit looking around.

"It should be around here somewhere!" She sounded concerned. What if someone found it...

Suddenly felt a bright light sting in her right eye. She looked back until she saw the light again. It was the moonlight and it reflected on something. Something silver.

Four huge silver spikes where sticking out of the ground, slightly tilted to the left and a little bend.

Flora sighted in relief, ran to the spikes and kneeled next to it. She carefully touched one of them. It was about half her size. Chatta looked from afar slightly flustered.

"What's wrong?" She asked concerned.

"N-Nothing, I thought I heard something." She looked around again to where the noise came from but decided it was nothing. She flew towards her bonded fairy.

"It got big again." Chatta exclaimed.

"You only noticed now?" Flora chuckled.

"Oh, har, har, your highness." Chatta hissed and stuck out her tongue.

Flora reached for her satchel, only to realise she forgot it was on her desk chair. She cursed.

"Looks like I'm going to have to redo the spell and hope we don't run into anyone..."

Flora rubbed her small hands together once more and started to mumble something.

Chatta backed up a little and crossed her fingers.

As Flora put her hands in front of her with her eyes closed a small white ball formed once again getting bigger and bigger. When it was the right size Flora opened her eyes and pushed the ball slowly towards the huge object. When it hit, It started to shrink once more.

The 2 looked at each other with satisfaction when a the small fork fell on the ground with a soft "thunk" and the brown haired fairy reached to pick it up. She was getting good at this.

"We are going to have to hurry, this one won't last long. Its former magic hasn't run out yet and it's unstable." She added after inspecting the fork. It now fit nicely in her palm.

"What are we waiting for then?!" The little pixie bounced up and down. "Let's go!"

And there she went.

Flora smiled softly and was about to fly out until she heard something. She looked behind her. Nothing? Was it her imagination or did she-? No, that's not possible. She must be seeing things.

She shook her head and smiled. Then she flew after Chatta.  
  


* * *

  
"You really should be more careful next time! That was close!"

"Careful?! This was your fault, you stepped on my toes!"

"Well she pushed me!"

"Don't blame it on me! You two weren't sitting still one second!"

"GIRLS! She's getting away!"

"Oh, cra-Ouch, watch it!"

"Don't linger! Let's go."

"Sigh."  
  


* * *

  
Flora and Chatta reached a wall huge wall. You couldn't see the top even if you had daylight. Flora looked around suspiciously and then to Chatta. Chatta was hovering next to her. They both put their right hand out and knocked on the wall 5 times simultaneously. Then put a step back.

The wall started to rumble a bit and slowly moved to the left, leaving an opening just big enough for 2 fairies to go though. The object started to get hot in Flora's hand, indicating she didn't have much time left before it would turn back. She looked at Chatta in a panic and quickly flew inside the now open cave, Chatta on her heels.

They didn't have time to see the gate close again because they had to move fast.

After a few moments in the dark, she reached a huge open clearing in the cave. She was welcomed by a lot of lights shining everywhere around her.

She looked at the sight with joy.

Before her was a big cave with a single hole on top of it. A little bit too small for her to fit trough with her wings, but big enough to let the moonlight in. She flew to the middle of the cave and looked around with content.

Her human things. Her treasures. Her life's work.

Thousands of silver, Gold, copper and other coloured items where neatly put in shelves made of the caves many layers. They seemed to have been in order once, but she loved this beautiful chaos.

The now shaking object took her out of her daydream.

"Over here!" Chatta yelled. She knew it was safe to yell now, because of the protective spell around the Grotto.

Flora looked at the direction of the sound and saw her pixie lingering near a big candle holder with 2 Items already in 3 of the slots. She quickly flew towards the Pixie and placed the item into the open slot of the holder, the middle.

She backed away and clapped her hands together in excitement. When she did this. The item started to shake a bit more and started to grow bigger and bigger, until it was the same size of the other 2 items. A perfect fit.

"We did it!" Flora took Chatta's hands and twirled her around a few times.

Chatta could only laugh with her.

CLANG, CLING, BOING, BANG, CLINGELINGELINGELINGELING

The loud noise startled the two and saw that a huge cup and rolled down the shelves, taking a few items with them and landing on the bottom shelf.

They looked up at what could have possibly made this happen and almost choked in their own breath.

"THE WINX!" They yelled together. Chatta sped out of sight and landed in a cup with a lid, the lid now closing.

Stella was tangled around some type of wire that just wouldn't break no matter how hard she tried.

Aisha was trying to untangle her with a "Would you sit still already" look on her face.

Musa was trying to hold her laughter with her hand in front of her mouth.

Bloom had her hand in front of her eyes indication she had just face palmed

And Tecna was looking around at a big vase trying to decipher what was on it.

It was actually quite amusing and Flora would have laughed, if she hadn't forgotten in how big of a trouble she was in. They had found her grotto...

"Well?!" The blonde with her pony tails yelled kind of angrily

"Uhm, I, Uhm... “Flora managed to stammer out.

"Not that!" Stella sighed. "Are you going to stand there all day? Or are you going to help me out of this... this... What is it anyway?!" She pulled harder on one of the threads, making it tangle around her ankle, instead of loosening.

"Stel! I told you to hold still!" Aisha was now getting her own dark brown hair into her mouth while using both her feet and her hands to get her out. Musa started rolling over the top shelf laughing getting close to falling off.

Flora chuckled at the sight. They could lift everyone's spirits. How she loved her sisters.

She flew closed to them and inspected the wire.

"According to Roxy's books, it's called a fish wire. They use it catch fish." Flora explained, while she flew around Stella.

"Aisha, could you let go please and hold this wire? Don't pull yet. Bloom could you come over here and hold this one."

Bloom stepped closer and took the part Flora was holding. "They?" she asked confused. "And Roxy knows about this?"

"GOD NO! She knows I have interested in them and I sometimes ask stuff. Occasionally I sneak in her library with forbidden books about them and read up on some things." Flora took a wire herself and crawled next to Stella into the mess.

"Who's them, then?" Tecna now turned to the wired mess genuinely interested.

"Okay now, Bloom and Aisha, pull!" Flora commanded and she herself pulled her wire.

Stella was instantly released.

"How-" The blonde started. "Never mind that. Who are you talking about?!"

Flora quietly started to roll the wire around her arm seemingly preoccupied not daring to look at her sisters.

"Flo, you can tell us, we made it this far." Musa's head popped up from behind the shelf. Rubbing the back of her head, she had stopped laughing when she fell off and hit her head.

"I think she's talking about humans." Tecna was now two levels down examining a painting of a burning candle. 

"WHAT?!"

It was like an echo that wasn't dying. It lingered around the grotto.

Flora looked up from her wire rolling when she was done to hang it on a spike coming out of the wall.

Tecna joined the others again in silence, waiting for confirmation.

"She's right."Flora sighed with her back to her sisters.

"You now know my secret... I collect human things." She turned around to face them.

She flew towards the centre of the grotto, they made room for her to pass with mouths open. "And this is my collection!" She said with pride spreading her arms wide.

Musa and Aisha whistled in awe. Bloom looked around genuinely surprised and Tecna started to look at some objects again more interested than before.

Stella looked distracted by something.

Chatta came out of her hiding place after the big announcement swallowing once.

Flora waited for a reply, lowering her hands.

Bloom was the first to recover. "Well... this is certainly not what we were expecting..."

"It's kind of interesting though. And cool. Where did you get all of this stuff?" Tecna moved from object to object.

"From around everywhere" Flora explained. "This last item was from the clearing I got attacked at."

"So it wasn't all a lie?" Aisha asked hopefully.

"Not really, just not the full truth." Flora reassured her. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys, but I wasn't sure you would understand." She added quietly

"You should have told us." Musa flew closer to Flora, taking her hands in hers.

"Yeah, this stuff is gold!" Tecna tried to open one of the many huge books to read them. "And heavy!" she groaned.

"Not for that reason! We are your sisters, you can trust us." Musa whispered to the brunette.

Flora hugged the blue haired fairy. "I'm sorry."

Bloom smiled at her hugging sisters and noticed something odd.

"So you won't tell mom?" Flora was almost crying now.

"Are you kidding? She'd kill you!" Aisha chuckled hitting her on the back. She had also joined them in the middle of the grotto. Flora was startled by the sudden hit, but smiled none the less.

"Stell, you okay?" Bloom had flown to where Stella was staring at a statue of two dancing persons. They were as big as them.

"Hm?" Was her reply, not looking up.

The others looked at them, flying closer. Even Tecna stopped trying to open the book.

"Is everything all right?" Bloom asked again.

Stella looked at Bloom for a second and then back to the statue. "Yes, it's just, this thing. It looks familiar."

"It should" Flora put a hand on Stella's shoulder. "It looks like one of the pictures in mom's room...”

"Really? Thought so." Stella didn't sound surprised at all, on contrary to their other sisters.

"They are dancing humans aren't they?" The blonde continued.

"Yes, you knew?" it was Flora's turn to be surprised.

"I've seen the picture many times, I always thought they looked strange for fairies." Stella explained.

"I wonder what it means." Tecna joined them.

"I wonder if it has something to do with mothers fear for humans..." Bloom added.

"HEY!" Stella yelled suddenly. "You aren't getting out this so quickly!" It was like she was thrown out of her slumber all of a sudden. Starling everyone.

"You still have some explaining to-" The blonde was cut off by a sudden loud whistling noise.

It was followed up by a bang. Startling the fairies making them jump up and lighting up the whole grotto in a red glow.

"WHAT THE-!"


	5. Traditions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It all begins and ends with a bang.

"Riven! NO! I Told you! Not yet!" He ran to a small tent on the outskirts of the clearing. His blonde bangs waving in the wind.

Near the tent was a boy with flaming red hair, he looked rather surprised and had a small black smudge on his nose, possibly due to the recent flame up.

"It's not even twelve yet!" the blonde said when he reached the tent.

Riven didn't reply. He just kept staring at his blackened hands. Then he looked at his older brother who ran towards him.

"Well, there goes the surprise. Might as well lid them all while you are at it." Roy had opened the small tent with his back while coming out. He had a small chuckle on his face and was carrying 4 firework rockets.

Riven looked confused at his other blonde brother whom had just appeared. "What?" he yelled.

Sky and Roy looked at each other for a second and then started laughing. "Oh my! Riven has gone deaf from the blast! This is hilarious." The short haired blonde struggled to keep hold of his rockets.

Riven was still looking at them and started rubbing her inside of his left ear with his finger. "This beep thing just won't stop! Oh, wait... It's getting quieter now..." Riven looked at his brothers once more.

"So Sky, did you say- Whoa! Roy! Are those dragon rockets?!" Riven stood up so fast, he had to sit down again because of the dizziness.

"Yup dude! My very own! Custom made!" The younger blonde boy said with pride.

Sky tried to give the boys a stern look before looking up at the sky, his arms wide and sighting. "Why am I the one blessed with such piece loving brothers?"

"It's not just you, you know, I'm blessed with them as well." Brandon chuckled. He was leaning against a tent pole nearby.

"Guys, Is everyone alright? I heard a bang... Riven what happened to your face?!" Helia's head appeared out of the biggest tent there was with a concerned look on his face. Soft music was coming out of the tent and a bit of noise that sounded like voices.

"Yeah man, don't worry yourself. He just fell in a little mud. You just take care of the guests and we'll take care of the rest!" Brandon saluted as if he was in the navy while he said that.

"If you're sure." He didn't look too satisfied but decided to trust his brothers and popped his head back inside.

"Nice save Brandon. Close call, I think he didn't notice over all the music." Sky patted him on his back.

"Isn't it about time you guys got yourselves into your suits?" the orange short haired boy walked towards the group of men as he asked that. He was wearing a black suit with a bright blue shirt under it. He wasn't wearing a tie. Timmy adjusted his classes with one hand and carrying a laptop in the other.

Sky looked at the others questioningly. "Who said anything about a suit?" He seemingly asked to no one in particular.

"You mean we aren't supposed to wear anything special?" Timmy had asked rather surprised.

Roy and Riven started laughing a bit and Brandon had a huge smile on his face. Sky looked at them and caught the joke pretty fast. He walked towards his second youngest brother and put both of his hands on his shoulders.

"Timmy my boy... haven't you learned after 19 years that you shouldn't listen to Riven or Roy in such matters?"

Timmy looked down pensively, then back up again. "Well... at least I won't look out of place, like the rest of you." He adjusted his glasses once more with a smile and headed back to the tent to open it. Took one last look at his confused brothers with a smirk and headed inside.

The other boys looked at each other confused. "No way..." Roy mouthed, but no sound came out.

Brandon was quite shocked about this himself and walked (rather quickly) to the tent to have a peek inside.

Timmy was right. Everyone was dressed up. Fancy dresses and tight suits all over the place. Even Helia wore a suited pants and a dark blue shirt that matched his hair. He was talking to an old man whom seemingly found the conversation more interesting than Helia, because he was suppressing a yawn.

Helia noticed his second oldest brother's head in the tent opening and quickly signed for him to come closer. Anything to get him away from this dreadful topic of interest.

Brandon looked shocked at this and quickly retreated his head.

Helia was really starting to get worried now. They were about to open the tent fully because it was almost midnight and almost his birthday. They were supposed to show people the beauty of the forest by night, because that was Helia's only reason for giving the party all the way up here. There also seemed to be a surprise from his brothers, which he didn't feel too keen about.

"I'm sorry Grandfather, would you excuse me for a second?" Helia offered the man a sympathetic smile and ran towards the side of the tent not waiting for an answer.

"Well now..." Retorted the old man. But Helia didn't hear the rest. He opened the tent flap and walked outside.

He was surprised to see what was in front of him.

Four of his brothers were locked into a fight with pieces of clothing.

Brandon was in the middle of putting on socks without any pants on,  only yellow shorts and a fancy red shirt buttoned up wrong.

Riven was only wearing a dark grey pants and socks and was looking for his shoes.

Sky was having a fight with his black vest because he couldn't find the sleeve opening and had one foot inside the leg hole of his pants suit. Not even wearing his brown shirt yet.

And Roy gave up and stared at the dark grey suit (with black shirt) in front of him wearing only blue shorts and socks.

Helia had to chuckle at the sight and heard a laugh coming from next to him. Timmy was holding his stomach and let out a joyful laugh that seemed highly contagious because Helia joined him.  
He had quickly figured out it was one of his other brothers tricks on Timmy which now backfired on them.

"Well!" Helia started, startling the other brothers because they were too busy to notice he had come out. "I think it'd about time to open the tent now, don't you agree Timmy?" Helia had a little sneer on his face and turned to his orange haired brother.

"Yes, Helia, I think that's a great idea!" Timmy replied as wiped away a small tear at the side of his eye.

All four other brothers yelled a "NO!" and "Please!" with a desperate look on their faces making Timmy grab for his stomach once more.

Helia smiled brightly and shook his head in disbelieve.

"Whatever you do, do it quickly, because in 5 minutes, I will have to open it." He chuckled. "Come on Timmy, let's entertain our guests a little more and let them struggle by themselves."

They left with an "ugh" and "damn it" while they opened the tent again and walked inside still laughing a little.

Helia looked at the crowd before him. The big tent was filled with people of nobility (or so they said they were). He knew most of them were there because of their status upgrade or because of social standing obligations. He also knew some were here to search for a husband for their daughters or nieces. Now that Helia was turning 18, he was old enough to be married, and who wouldn't want to marry into royalty.

He was actually quite happy his brothers where here. It made this boring obligation more interesting.

Helia sighted and checked his watch. 2 minutes before 12. It was now or never.  He looked at Timmy who was standing next to him still with a smile on his face.

'Think they are ready?" The orange haired boy smiled.

"Don't know, don't really care. It would make for a great laugh, and they deserve it." Helia chuckled.

Timmy nodded. Being the two youngest of the gang, they both had their share of pranks and teasing from the quarto. Well Trio, because Sky wasn't that bad. But still. They had formed a silent bond together swearing to take revenge whenever they could. And now would be perfect.

Helia lifted his head up again and cleared his throat.

No one seemed to notice.

He looked at Timmy questioningly. Timmy smiled and opened his laptop. Pressed one button and the music stopped abruptly.

Still no change.

Timmy looked at his screen pensively and suddenly pointed to a file on his desktop with a smile. Helia leaned in closer to see and let out a small laugh. Then nodded.

Timmy smiled back and opened the file. Clicked the play button and a loud gong was vibrating trough the tent. Making people drop their glass on the grass or flip their plate of food on the person in front of them. Making a mess.

Helia suppressed a laughter and Timmy hid his face behind his computer.

"Ladies and gentlemen. May I please have your attention?!" Helia had started.

Everyone stopped cursing and rose their head towards the speaker of the voice.

"I wish to thank you all for coming here and joining me this far into the forest. I know most of you had a lot of trouble getting here but I wish to thank you for your efforts and all of the lovely... uh... presents!"

Helia eyed the big pile of wrapped trinkets whom meant nothing to him. Unless it was the sketchbook he got from Roy and Riven, the new fountain pen from Sky, a refillable pencil he got from Timmy. Heck even the poster of the barely dressed woman in bright red bikini he got from Brandon was better than this even though looking at it still made his head as red as that said bikini.

A lot of people nodded in approval, others just kept looking offended because of their outfits being ruined by food.

"Now, I wish to invite you all to the outside of the tent for the finale of tonight!" Helia shouted a little louder.

He nodded to Timmy and Timmy nodded back. They turned on their heels and both walked to the side poles of the tent. They pulled a rope at the same time pulling up the tent flap slowly.

They were greeted by 4 men standing outside dressed "nicely" in black and grey suits. At least if you didn't look closer.

Helia suppressed a laughter again. Riven apparently never found his shoes and was still wearing sneakers. Brandon's shirt was still buttoned up wrong. Sky's hair was a mess and Roy's shirt wasn't even in his pants.

Helia looked at Timmy whom was holding a hand in front of his mouth to hold his laughter in.

Helia cleared his throat once more and nodded to his brothers. They nodded back a little ashamed but turned around and lit a match at the same time. They lit the rockets and stepped back until they were standing next to Helia and Timmy.

Riven elbowed Timmy in his sides with a grunt but Timmy didn't seem to mind. He was smiling to his brother, making it impossible for Riven to stay mad at him and smiled too.

They all looked up at the sky when a whistle was heard until a loud "bang" echoed once more trough the forest. Four beautiful dragon figures rose into the sky each a different colour to begin with and changing every second, until all the colours of the rainbow had passed then they dissolved into nothingness.

"Ooooh"s and "Aaaaaah"s were heard throughout the crowd.

Roy smiled at his creations and figured it was time to take out the normal firework. He ran towards a small tent and started setting up more of the rockets. The other brothers decided to help out to make the finale more... final.  
  


* * *

  
"DEAR GOD! THAT'S NOT A DRAGON IS IT?" Stella hid behind a tree at the sight.

"THERE'S FOUR OF THEM" Bloom yelled holding both of her hands against her cheeks.

"Bloom! Stella! SHHHH!" Flora had her finger on her lips. "They might hear us!"

"They?" Tecna looked at her younger sister with a questioning look.

"The humans!" Flora clapped her hands together excited.

"There are no humans in this forest Flo! I keep telling you!" Flora looked at the unbelieving brown haired fairy.

"There are Aisha and I will prove it to you." Flora explained as a matter-of-factly she flew closed to the origin of the bang and knew they were quite close now.

"Roxy said there where humans in the forest this very day!" she added.

"So... no dragons?" Stella came out from behind her tree to stare at the dissolving dragons and started to follow the group.

"No stell, I think that's fireworks, or so I read in-" Flora didn't get to finish her sentence because she was interrupted by a loud bang once more. Making the sky green this time.

"You know, if it wasn't for the loud sound, It would be kind of pretty." Musa was rubbing her ears looking up at the Red "flower" that followed up the green one.

They silently flew closer all looking up at the sky until they all bumped into each other with "oy!"s and "hey!"s.

Flora just put a finger to her lips again and beckoned them to follow her silently.

They reached a big tree with a thick low hanging branch. They hid themselves behind the branch because it was thick enough to hide their whole body but popped up their heads to see what was going on.

Chatta did the same, but behind a nearby leaf, because her body was too small.

What they saw startled them.

About a 100 of humans where chatting around and dancing to some music which had started to play. Some were eating while chatting, others were simply holding a fancy glass of yellow bubbly liquid. Every now and then they would look up to see the result of the "bang" sound and some even started clapping.

"The last one!" They had heard someone say.

All of them looked towards their left to see a group of 6 young men gathered around a few sticks in the ground. On one of the sticks was a square shaped "thing" that had a triangle on top of it.

They saw a short haired blond boy lit a stick and gave the stick to a blueish long haired boy.

"You do the honours birthday boy!" The blonde one had said.

The blue haired boy took the match and lit a little string that came out of the 'thing'. The fairies watched intensely at the 'thing' wondering what it was, until the boys took a step back.

They suddenly heard a whistling sound and followed the 'thing' rising at the sky. They flinched when they heard the bang and looked with awe at the purple 'flower" in the sky.

"So that's how they do it!" Flora said excitedly.

"That's firework? Fascinating." Tecna took out her display screen and started typing some things on it.

Flora simply shook her head with a smile and looked at the group of young men again.

"He's kind of cute." Someone suddenly said out of nowhere.

The other girls looked at their blonde haired sister.

"What?" Musa exclaimed surprised.

"The one with the brown hair" Stella said, while she pointed towards the group.

They followed her finger back towards the boys.

"Come on, don't tell me there's none of them that suit your taste." She stated with a grin.

"Stell, they are humans! We can't go on rating humans!" Aisha sighted. Unbelievable. There was only one person in the whole fairy kingdom who was flamboyant enough to start rating boys from another species.

"Well, we don't have male fairies that match their level of handsomeness." She had crossed her arms with determination. “I still think he looks cute."

Flora who'm had been quiet the whole time had to agree with her oldest sister. There was something about that blue haired boy she couldn't quite grasp. If only he would come a little closer to get a better look...

"I kinda like the long haired blonde one." Bloom quietly whispered. Her head almost turning as red as her hair.

"I knew it!" Stella clapped her hands together excitedly. "Musa?" she asked.

Musa stared at her blonde haired sister and then back at the group of boys. "Well, if we had to choose... the red one?" She asked unsure, turning her head sideways as if to get a better look.

Stella giggled and looked at Aisha suggestively. The brunette simply crossed her arms and closed her eyes as if saying: I refuse to play this game with you.

Stella shook her head with a smile. "All right, I think the short blonde haired one would suit you!" she said happily.

Aisha opened one eye to see which one she meant, because she had to admit, she was curious. She looked pensively at the boy, whom had just taken of his vest because it got dirty with black smudges and started rolling up his sleeves. He was talking eagerly with the red haired one. He was pretty muscly and his tan wasn't bad, maybe if he did some type of sport? No! What was she thinking!

She looked at Stella whom looked back at her excited and shook her head.

Stella had seen her stare and was content with just this.

"Tecna?" she tried to ask, but she just had to follow her stare to notice she was too preoccupied to notice her. At the end of her stare she was looking at an orange haired boy who was just sat down on a fallen branch and started typing quietly on his laptop.

"Ah, the brainy type huh?" She put a hand on her pink haired sister shoulder.

Tecna just started to mumble something. "Wonder... new system...researching...type class..." the rest she couldn't hear.

Stella sighted. No match making for this one. This only left her youngest sister, whom was also staring. But this was a different stare.

She followed the stare that headed towards the blue haired boy.

"Jackpot!" she yelled happily, startling the little fairy and making her look at her. Flora put her hands to her lips again with a blush on her face. She couldn't hear what they were saying and it made her curious beyond belief.

Stella just chuckled and listened in with the rest of them.

"Well, I think you successfully scared away all of the animals now, with your little 'surprise'." The blue haired held both of his hands in the air and moved both of his index fingers and point fingers while he said the world "surprise". He crossed his arms afterwards.

"Oh come on Helia, don't be so down about that, admit you liked the show!" The brown haired one had said.

"So his name is Helia" Flora whispered, forgetting she was not alone, until she heard a snicker from one of her sisters. I don't think you have to be told whom it was.

Her head turned a light shade of pink again and decided to concentrate on the conversation.

"I did Brandon, but you could have had some safety measures in place you know... It's a DRY forest."

"Brandon..." sighted the blonde haired fairy with a lot of love in her voice. Making the other fairies chuckle for once.

"Don't worry dude, I made them with a lot of care and special materials, there wasn't any harm."

"He made them?!" The dark haired brunette asked out loud. Earning a "shh" from the other fairies.

"Yeah Roy, you did an amazing job." the long blonde haired boy patted 'Roy' on his back. Earning a grin from the other blonde.

Stella nudged Aisha in the sides making her look at the blonde. 'Roy' she mouthed without sound, and winked.

Aisha looked the other way seemingly uninterested. Seemingly...

"Thanks Sky!" Roy seemed really happy with the compliment.

Bloom hid a bit further behind the branch trying to hide her red face from Stella. Whom she knew was looking at her now because of the mention of the name 'Sky'

"GOD DAMNIT TIMMY! YOU HAD THEM THE WHOLE TIME!"

Everyone, including the fairies looked at the origin of the sound only to hold their laughter. The boys however where laughing openly at the sight.

What they saw was this. The orange haired boy now called 'Timmy' was running around the big tent with a huge grin on his face holding a black shoe in his one hand and his laptop in the other. He was followed by a red haired young man whom was also holding a black shoe up, ready to smack whoever got into his way and a really angry face.

"I will get you for this!" He yelled holding up the shoe, when they both entered the big tent leaving everyone to their laughter.

"Well, that explains his fashion sense." Stella had said with hands in her sides. She looked at Musa whom was laughing with her hand in front of her mouth and then at Tecna whom looked quite worried.

"I'm sure he's going to be okay Tec." Flora put her hand on the pink haired girls' shoulder.

"I hope so." She expressed with worry, making everyone look at her surprised. She wasn't one to show emotion so quickly. Stella seemed overjoyed at this and held both of her hands together next to her face.

"I can't imagine what would happen should he drop the laptop..." She added pensively, biting her thumb nail.

This made 4 of the other fairies chuckle and one fairy hang her head in defeat. Even the pixie started laughing. Whom had just been observant and quiet for the whole thing.

Flora looked at her pixie lovingly. It seemed she finally started to open up to the idea of humans.

"Oh, Timmy's going to have it now!" Roy clutched his stomach due to the pain in his sides from laughing.

"Yeah man, Riven's never going to let this one go." Sky was leaning on Brandon hiding his face in his brother’s shoulder.

Musa seemed satisfied finding out his name and nodded openly.

Timmy came out of the tent rubbing his arm with one eye closed due to the pain on his arm yet a satisfied smile on his face as he walked towards his brothers. They congratulated him for the job well done. Especially Helia, whom gave him a fist bump and a wink.

Riven came out a few seconds later now fully dressed with matching shoes and seemed satisfied as well.

All of a sudden something started shaking in the bush next to the fairies and pixie, startling all of them.

The boys immediately stopped laughing and tensed up looking at the direction of the sound and the fairies (and pixie) looked at each other in a state of panic trying to hide as quickly as possible.

Then without any warning, a white wolf darted out of the bush and stopped right in front of the boys. It growled at them.

"There goes your theory about scaring all the animals..." Sky sighed and took a fighting pose making fists with his hands and taking place in front of his brothers.

"No, wait!" Helia answered to his brother. Putting a hand on his shoulder.

Helia looked into the bright blue eyes of the pure white animal and saw that there was no hate nor fear in them. Which was odd.

He kneeled in front of his brother and beckoned the animal to come closer.

The wolf looked behind her for a second to then sit down to stare at the boys confused, titling her head side wards.

The boys looked at each other not understanding what just happened and then to Helia. They knew he had a way with nature but this was beyond their understanding.

Helia took out his newly acquired sketchbook and pencil and started to draw him with a few swift lines. The others just watched, knowing not to move because this could startle the animal.

"He's really brave isn't he?" Flora had now come out of the branch and leaned on it to get a better view.

"Yeah, I’ve never seen- Hey, Isn't that Artu? The wolf of- “Aisha started. But never got to finish her sentence.

"Oh yes, very brave, almost as brave as you seven, even when you all ready know the consequences of your actions!"

The voice had startled all of them making them turn around and hit their backs against the branch.

"Roxy!" They shouted in union. They stared in horror at the dark pink haired fairy whom was hovering at their height and had her arms crossed in front of her.

"Don't you Roxy me!" The guard held out her finger in a threatening way. "What are you doing here?!"

"We were-", "uhm", "there was-", "We didn't-" the purple haired fairy got as a reply from all of them at once. She sighted and held out her hand for quietness. Which she immediately got.

"Let me guess." She started.  "Flora (and Chatta) decided on a trip towards the forest, and you decided to follow her when you noticed she was gone." she pointed to the sisters.

They just nodded in disbelief.

"Then you heard the fireworks and decided to take a trip together to find out what it was and hid here because it was interesting in some way." She now had her hands in her side.

The other looked at each other in surprise, it was amazing how this woman knew them so well. They had to be careful.

A small whine made them all look towards the square again and when they saw even Roxy couldn't explain.

The boys where patting her wolf. HER WOLF!

They where even playing with it. She felt her anger for the fairies ebb away and decided they were right. This was interesting.

"All right, just this once." she added and joined them behind the branch. But the fairies weren't listening to her anymore. They just couldn't believe these 'evil humans' like their mother described them were so very evil.

"Well, do you like it?" Helia asked the wolf. He showed him his drawing.

The wolf licked his face as reply.

"I think that's a yes, man!" Roy patted the white haired beauty on her head.

"Good, then I'm satisfied." Helia stood up with a smile. He looked at the drawing once more before closing it only to notice something odd.

"Artu?" He said out loud.

The wolf looked up in surprise and waggled her tail happily while walking towards Helia. She sat down next to him as if waiting for an order.

"Your name is Artu?" Helia asked again looking wide eyes in surprise at her. The wolf stood up on 2 legs as a reply and leaned her front paws against his legs.

He looked at his brothers who had looked like they had seen a ghost. A mixture of disbelief and surprise written all over their faces.

"How in blazes did you guess her name?!" Brandon had take a step backwards in fear that their little brother had magical powers.

"I don't know!" Helia said in a state of panic. He showed them the sketch. "But it's written here, below the drawing!" He pointed his finger towards the letters, clearly written in Helia's handwriting.

-

"What?" The guard asked as she noticed all 6 of the sister fairies and a little pixie look at her questioningly.

"I can't very well let them name her something stupid like... Kiko... or something, right? They might as well call her by her right name." She nodded contently while crossing her arms.

Bloom chuckled at the mention of the name Kiko and the other just shook their heads with a smile.

"It's an arctic type wolf." Timmy said while he looked up from his laptop. "They are quite rare and it's even less likely to find one in a forest." He added pensively. "But the name Artu would make sense."

The boys looked at the wolf in union. The wolf itself was waggling her tail happily.

"I wonder what it's doing here." Brandon knelt next to it and started scratching under its chin. Getting a lick on his hand as reply.

Riven picked up a stick and threw it away again for her to fetch. "Who cares man? She's here now."

An old man walked towards the playing boys. He rose an eyebrow when he saw the white animal but he made no comment about it. He had a yellow walking cane in the shape of a snake with a purple ball in it. His white hair had been combed towards the back of his head and was quite long.

"Helia my boy, there is one present left to give you." He said with pride.

"Grandfather Saladin" Helia said surprised turning towards him. "Another present?"

He heard his brothers snicker behind him and even if he didn't look at them, he knew this wasn't a good sign.

"Yes my boy, behold!" He pointed his cane towards a huge boulder like thing which was covered in a brown sheet held together by robes.

The boulder thing was pulled by a few servants on a big cart with wheels.

Helia had a bad feeling about this and pulled a face that resembled being sick and in pain.

The fairies leaned in closer out of curiosity.  
Flora was even standing on top of the branch and leaned forwards holding her balance on the very leaf Chatta was sitting.

Helia carefully moved closer to the "thing". "What is it?" He asked carefully, trying his best not to look at his now openly laughing brothers.

"It's my best work!" The old man said with pride and he took one of the ropes and offered it to Helia

"Have a look yourself." He added as Helia took the rope reluctantly.

He couldn't resist looking at his brothers once more, whom had stopped laughing and had a huge smile on their faces, Riven was even holding a thumbs up. The room had gone quiet and he knew Timmy had turned off the music.

Right when he was about the pull the robe the sound of drum rolls sounded though the sound system. Making Helia look at Timmy a little annoyed. Timmy only had a thumbs up in reply and chuckled.

Helia didn't like this one bit but he knew he had no choice anymore. He pulled the rope as hard as he could and the whole sheet came down almost on top of him. So he had to step back. The drum roll had stopped and a loud trumpet sound filled the forest. Making the Fairies hold their ears to ease the pain in them.

Silence filled the room leaving everyone to stare, until Artu started growling towards the 'thing'.

In front of them was a huge statue of Helia. It was in a grey clayish cement and it had no colour in it. He was standing with one foot on the ground and the other on their family shield crest. (Which was a floating tower that he found always looked like a mushroom.) He had a sword in his left hand which was pointed behind him and his other hand was at his chest in a fist. His chest was broader then he remembered and was pushed forwards.

He was wearing the uniform he recognised as his normally blue sparring outfit, because of the shoulder pads and the oval shaped gem in the middle of his chest, which was normally a light shade of brown.  
His cape was behind him as if there was a strong wind blowing. His bangs where still in place but his back hair was flowing with that said wind. His face was moulded into a stern look with a hint of "pride" as if he had slayed a dangerous beast.

"Well, It certainly is... special." Helia said to his grandfather his eyes not leaving the statue.  
He patted Artu (who was standing next to him) on her head absentmindedly to stop her from growling, which worked.

"Now I know it’s not that accurate but we spend a year on it. Your brothers even helped posing for it!" The old man smiled from ear to ear with pride.

Helia bit his under lip with a smile not knowing if to laugh at the idea of his brothers posing for this or to cry at the thing itself.

He finally averted his eyes to look at his brothers. They themselves didn't know whether to laugh or to look ashamed at the memory of standing there to pose for it. Helia knew they had no choice in the matter. If grandfather asked. You just couldn't say no. Therefore he felt a bit bad for them.

"Off course..." His grandfather said silently making Helia look at him. The music began to play again and the other people started chatting once more.

"I had hoped it would have been a wedding gift." Saladin added thoughtfully.

Helia threw his head in the air. Not this again.

"Grandfather, I told you. The princess of Linphea is so totally not the type of woman I would have set my eyes on. Let alone marry." Helia started to walk around in frustration.

Seemingly without origin. It would have helped it if was the opposite direction. Because the direction he was headed, was a certain low branch. Where a young fairy was day dreamingly looking at a certain statue in the middle of the clearing. She snapped out of it when she heard the word 'marry' awfully close and startled herself when something grabbed her foot and pulled her down without a word.  
Just in time to hide, the blue haired boy leaned on that said branch with his back towards it, facing his grandfather, whom had followed him.

"If I marry, I want it to be about love." He added. Knowing he sounded corny with that. But it was better than "just busyness".

"But grandson, the whole kingdom wants to see you with a bride on your arm." The old man sounded genuinely worried.

"Yes, and why is that!" Helia's frustration was spiking now. He turned around to lean with his arms crossed on the branch. He stared hard into the forest but still without a purpose.

"I mean, I'm not even the oldest and Sky is already engaged, even if it is an arranged marriage, he still agreed. There's no reason for me to marry so soon. Or for people wanting me too."

-

"What is an arrange marriage." Bloom whispered into Roxy's ear as she pulled the guard's sleeve. She sounded worried.

"It's a marriage that is arranged with or without consent of the 2 people involved." She explained quietly. "Other people, like parents or guardians chose the couple to get two kingdoms together, so in all, a marriage for the interest of the kingdoms."

"So no love?" Stella asked genuinely concerned.

Roxy shook her head sadly. But turned her attention to the conversation. The others did too.

Flora, whom had looked at Roxy during the explanation couldn't really look at her prince. Because she was directly beneath him. She didn't have much chance to hide. Chatta was also near, because she was the one that had pulled her foot. He only needed to look down...

"But it is tradition, my boy, and Krystal is such a nice lady." The old man sounded tired and disappointed. This conversation was one sided, as it was every time he tried.

"Yeah, well, why don't you go bother my other brothers about it." Helia added a little annoyed, but he regretted saying that immediately after her did. Because he knew the old man had already tried million of times.

The man said nothing but Helia felt the eyes upon his back.

He sighed and closed his eyes.

"I'm sorry grandfather. But I'm just not ready to give up my search just yet. The search for the one. And you'll see. One day, I'll be ready and she will be there. The one I am looking for. The one that will fill my heart, the moment I see her. The one... for me." He added as he turned towards his grandfather.

Flora's head started to feel light as she realised she had been holding her breath this whole time. She released her breath silently and wondered about her thoughts. Why was she hoping this one, was her? What was wrong with her? She had just met this man. This man, who she knew didn't even know she existed.

And yet, his soft voice made her warm inside. His smell, a mixture of a coconut shampoo, ink and something else she had never smelled before, made her wish for his touch. His whisper just now gave her chicken pox all over her body. And her blush just wouldn't leave her face. She looked up and saw his back towards her. She allowed herself to take a look at him from so close. She felt an urge to reach out to him. To tell him she was right here. But a voice brought her back to reason.

She heard her name again and looked at the origin. It were her sisters. They beckoned her to come to them, where it was safe. They had a bit of panic in their face. Why? She knew this was the best possible moment to hide, with his back towards them. She suddenly realised she had her hand reached out, she was hovering next to his elbow and actually almost touched the fabric of his shirt. She shook her head in disbelief and retreated her hand so fast that it almost seemed like she flew backwards because of the retreat.

When she landed safely against her sisters they looked at her with disbelief as well.

"Damn girl, you got it bad." Stella patted her sister on her head lovingly.

Flora opened her mouth to protest but nothing came out.

"All right my boy, I understand." They heard someone say.

Helia sighted in relief.

"As long as you know what you are doing." the old man added, looking at his grandson pensively.

"I know Grandfather. I know. I will know. Because when I see her, it will hit me." Helia added with a smile. “Like lightning!"  Helia rose a fist as to emphasise his words.

Suddenly darkened clouds started gathering above them, and thunder could be heard from afar.


	6. Thunderbolts and Lightning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When two worlds collide, strange things tend to happen.

Everyone looked up to the sky.

"There appears to be a storm coming." Timmy said, as he looked up. "But it was said to be a quiet night. I don't understand."

"You can't control the weather Tim" Roy said, while he patted the boy on his back.  
"Come on, help us clean up before everything will go wasted by the wind."

Helia joined his brothers in the cleanup. But the wind wasn't exactly in their favour. It kept blowing over the things they had just cleaned up and was picking up speed fast.

One of the tent poles suddenly sprang loose and the tent started to loosen at the other places too, leaving the guests in it to scream in fear.

"EVERYONE calm down!" Helia tried to yell over the wind. But the rumble from the thunder above them made it impossible.

He looked around to see how everyone was doing. But it was getting really dark to see.

Suddenly a light filled the sky for a few seconds, making everyone in the tent scream louder, and they started to run towards the parking spot a bit further away.

Helia sighed, he knew it was useless to stop them. He loved nature but he knew how cruel it could be. He knew the weather would not let up soon, so instead he turned to look for his brothers.

He saw that they had loaded up all of the electrical equipment into the nearby truck and saw his grandfather get into it, together with a servant. They drove away when another flash made him look up. This one was really, really close.

He felt better though that almost everyone got away safely.

Sky came running to his side. His hand almost in front of his face to try and keep the wind away.

"Helia, we really must go now, it's getting danger-" He dodged an incoming tree branch that had gotten loose due to the heavy wind.

"Yeah, I can tell." He also dodged something, but it was a flying fork. Whoa, dangerous.

They ran towards his other brothers, who'm were waiting at the side of the clearing, there was a small road that would lead to the cars waiting for them.

Helia joined his brothers last in line and was about to follow them out, until a lightning bolt fell straight out of the sky, blinding them all for a few seconds. They rubbed their eyes and heard something else other than wind. Smelled it too... Fire.

Helia opened his eyes and turned around to look behind him. The lightning had hit one of the tent poles standing up and made the tent catch fire. The dry tent went up in flames faster than he had ever seen. No thanks to the strong wind, the fire started to spread towards the nearby tree branches and trees.

"Oh No..." He whispered in disbelief.

"HELIA, we really must go! NOW." It was Riven this time who tried to get above the sound. But it sounded no more than a whisper to him.

Suddenly he hear something else. He listened carefully. What was that?

A howl? A whine? He couldn't quite grasp it. Until dawned to him. It was Artu!

He darted towards the tent as fast as he could.

"Helia! No! Where are you going?!" Brandon yelled after him in a state of panic.

"Artu!" Helia turned towards his brothers a second to yell: "She's trapped! She needs help! Go on ahead!"

He turned towards the tent again and ran as fast as he could.

"Are you CRAZY?!" Brandon replied as he stepped forwards, ready to follow his youngest brother, when all of a sudden they heard something crack slowly. Brandon looked up just in time to see a huge tree fall down on top of him. He felt something pull on his collar and suddenly got pulled backwards with a lot of force.

The tree landed right in front of his feet and was burning brightly. Gasping for breath and rubbing his neck he looked up. He was surrounded by his brothers, Sky was sitting next to him still holding his collar, out of breath and Timmy was holding him by his arm. Riven was looking at the 7 foot (about 2,1 m) high burning roadblock with worried eyes and Roy seemed to be looking for something.

"We godda go guys." Riven said, surprisingly calm turning to his brothers.

"There ain't no way I'm leaving him behind!" an angry Sky rose from his position and put a step closer to Riven.

"I don't think he meant it like that." Roy replied, stopping his search for a second and looked at them.

"We need to find something to stop the fire. Or at least something to open the roadblock for him to get trough." Timmy added pensively. "What I don't understand is, why the fire isn't spreading towards the other trees, it stays in the clearing."

They all looked at Timmy surprised and then to the clearing. Timmy was right. But that didn't matter now.

"Sorry, you are right." Sky apologised.

And with that, they ran towards the cars, hoping to find some help.

* * *

 

After being almost blown away by the strong winds they barely got to hold on to the leaves that where still hanging on the branch.

When the lightning had hit, they knew something was terribly wrong. Lightning never hit this close to their borders. Their mothers magic forbade it unless a higher force was at work. But they didn't have much time to think about it more, when the fire started to spread. They were forced to let go of the leaves and hide behind a fallen tree.

"Did you see if everyone got away in time?" Layla asked patting some small twigs off of her sleeves.

"I think so, I don't think I-" But before Stella could finish that sentence, they heard a howl.

It was really close and they rose up to see where it came from. They gasped when they saw the burning tent, and something move inside it.

"ARTU!" Roxy yelled before she wanted to fly over to her beloved companion.

"No wait!" Musa put a hand on Roxy's arm. "Look!" She pointed towards the burning tent, making everyone look surprised.

"Helia?!" Flora exclaimed with worry. "What is he doing? I thought they had left!"

They watched how Helia reached the tent and looked around. He grabbed a bottle of water that was lying nearby and ripped off his sleeves with his teeth. He sprinkled the water all over the ripped cloths and bound then over his hands. He sprinkled the rest over his body and started moving items to try to get inside.

"We have to help him!" Flora was panicking now. She needed to do something, fast . Or she would lose her newly found hero before he even got to know her.

"I know!" Roxy yelled in frustration, as she watched the boy risk his life for her companion. "But what?!"

They watched as Helia had finally reached an opening into the tent and took a deep breath. He opened the flap and went inside.

As quickly as he went in, he came out again. He was covered in black smudges everywhere and was carrying a white wolf in his arms.

He looked around in panic and ran towards the exit he came from, only to realise it was blocked.

He cursed under his breath and looked around once more. He was surrounded by fire. There was nowhere to go.

He buried his head into the fur of the animal, hiding his look of despair. She smelled like burned hair. Which brought him back to his senses.

He took the bottle of water he had put in his back pocket and sprinkled the rest over the animal. It seemed to like the feeling because it didn't shake it off.

"No need for both of us to burn." He said with a sad smile to the animal.

It looked at him with sad eyes and licked his hand, for that was the only thing she could reach.

"Well now." He sighed as he looked at the sky. " Are you ready?" He looked down again at the wolf.

"He's not going to-, Is he?" Roxy held her hands together and didn't believe her own eyes. He was going to give his life for the sake of her wolf. Never had she had seen such kindness from a human.

Everyone else was just staring in disbelief at the whole thing.

All of a sudden he threw the animal high in the sky, it had clearly understood his meaning and jumped at the last minute out of his arms, making it possible to reach the top of the fallen tree. It touched the tree for a small second and jumped to the other side with a whine.

Once out of view, Helia realised he was holding his breath and only released it when he heard a howl coming from the other side of the branch.

Roxy gasped at his throw and yelled the wolfs name, before speeding off towards the fallen tree. The wind was helping her, for once.

Flora was tired of doing nothing when she saw him throwing the wolf. She flew without thinking out of the branch. She heard her sisters calling her name but she didn't care. She had to do something. The strong wind had caught her by surprise but she wouldn't lose to it. At first it seemed like she could push trough but she proved to be too small for it and got blown back again.

Layla was quick enough to catch her and bring her back to their hiding place.

She shook her head silently towards the light haired brunette. "We're too small." She said sadly.

Flora refused to let this end like this. She looked at her sisters, who looked at her in dispair. It all seemed so hopeless..

Flora hit the tree branch with all the force she could muster. Something. There must be something.

"Your spell." Someone had said. Quietly, like they didn't want to be heard.

She looked up to see it came from Chatta, who was hovering next to her head.

"Your spell." She repeated.

Her spell? "But, I can't reach him to make him smaller..." she replied hopelessly to her pixie.

Chatta smiled at this, with a little gleam in her eyes. "Not him." She said pointing at the clearing. "You!" She now pointed to Flora.

"Me?" She said confused. The others also looked at each other just as confused as Flora.

"Off course!" Flora yelled happily! "Chatta you're a genius!" She had hugged the little pixie so tight, the others were afraid she would squish her.

"Spell?" Tecna asked her curiously.

"Yes" Flora turned to her sisters. "But I'm going to need your help." She gestured all of them before she took Tecna's hands.

"We're going to have to be quick now, you remember Widgets class of enlarging items?" She asked quickly.

They slowly nodded in union.

"Well, I'm going to ask you to do that to me." She said quietly but had a determined look on her face, squishing Tecna's hands softly.

"Are you out of your mind? So much could go wrong!" Layla yelled in panic, grabbing Flora's arm.

"We can't use it on living objects!" Bloom put her hand in front of her mouth in disbelief.

"I've never even used it out of class!" Musa bit her thumb nail in confusion.

Stella and Tecna looked at each other pensively.

"Please!" Flora begged them."It's the only way I can think of!" She looked at the boy whom had now fallen onto his knees. He started coughing. The fire was really reaching high degrees now and she knew the water on his body had dried up. She knew smoke started filling his lunges as he closed his eyes.

She gasped and put her hand in front of her mouth.

"We can do it. And we must." Flora looked to her side to see who had said that. Tecna smiled to her and patted her other hand.

"If we all work together it should be possible, with all the magic we have." Tecna turned to her other sisters determent. Stella nodded with her eyes closed.

Flora could only stare at her sister and felt so much love towards her she could never express.

"Flora, If this works, you'll only have a few minutes because the spell will be unbalanced." It was Stella's turn to explain things. "So show me, that your love for this man will prevail." She had smiled.

Flora nodded to her oldest sister and turned to look at the others. They looked unsure but the heroic actions of the boy had changed their mind about everything. They would help her save him.

They had formed a circle around their youngest sister and started chanting.

Flora thanked her sisters with a soft smile on their face.

Stella opened one eye to smile at her and closed it again. Her serious face taking over.

Flora glanced at Helia again just in time to see him falling down fully. She gasped. She would never make it. She was getting to scared, now, really hoping this would work.

A light made her look in front of her again. Her 5 sisters had their hands in front of them and had opened their eyes. A small ball of light was in front of them, growing bigger by the second.

"Are you ready?" Musa asked a little unsure.

Flora nodded. "Yes" He voice sounded more determined than she was really feeling, but she knew she had no choice anymore.

All 5 balls started growing brighter and came closer to her. Flora closed her eyes when the balls hit her, making her feel all fuzzy inside. She didn't feel any different to be honest, just a little light headed? She opened her eyes to see if anything had changed. She didn't see anyone anymore.

"Girls?" she asked unsure.

"Over here!" She got as a reply, when she saw Layla land on her shoulder. She was as big as her hand now.

"It worked!" Flora felt so relieved as if years had fallen of her shoulder.

"Go get him, tiger." Stella winked at her younger, yet now bigger sister.

Flora nodded and looked at the clearing, her eyes searching for the boy who'm had been so heroic. When she saw him lying down a little further, near the fallen tree, she wasted no time anymore and shot out towards him.

The wind was not a problem anymore, sure, it was annoying, but she didn't care. She lifted her hands when she got close to the line of fire (which was a few steps) and plants came out of the ground, making a way through the fire. She knew this was only for a few seconds, but it was enough for her to fly though without getting herself caught in the flames.

She reached him without further problems and kneeled besides him. She turned him around so he could face her. Putting his head into her lap. He was barely breathing and coughed once.

She felt relieved, he was still alive. She looked around looking for an exit. She couldn't do the plant thing again, because she knew she wouldn't go fast enough when she carried him.

She lifted his arm and put it around her shoulder and put her other arm around his waist. She rose to stand on her feet. These humans where heavy!

She looked up at the big tree. She wondered if she could fly with him next to her. Only one way to find out. She pushed herself up from the ground and surely enough, it was working.

She mustered all the strength she had and flew up higher and higher. Just high enough to reach the top of the branch. "Just a little bit further." She breathed out loud.

She put her foot on the top of the tree to help boost her across the tree. Once across she let herself glide down to the bottom of the other side. In the glide, she tried to get at much distance as she could from them and the tree.

She set him down slowly and lied him down with his back to the ground. She fell to her knees next to him and put her hands on the ground. She was panting due to the effort.

"Flora!"

She looked up to see her sisters (and pixie) fly towards her with a smile on their face.

"You did it!" Bloom yelled happily.

"Yes, but barely." She replied with a sigh.

"Is he okay?" Layla was hovering above his face looking at him intently.

She finally got a chance to look at him. He was in really bad shape. His shirt was burned in certain places and his pants wasn't any different. He had a few dark smudges on his face and his hair was singed  in some places.

"I don't know... Look, he's breathing!" She reached for his face when she said this, to feel his slow breath upon her hand. She smiled.

"Thank you, Everyone. It's all thanks to you." She looked at her sisters, whom were hovering above the boy. They simply smiled at her.

Flora felt a water drop fall upon her hand. She looked up at the sky and so did the others.

Soft rain started falling from the heavens. She smiled at the cool water landing down her face. The forest would be saved.

"We must keep him from the rain, though." Layla had said.

Flora looked down towards her. Only to see she started raising a small morphix bubble around them to keep out the rain.

"If only there was something we could do to help him heal." She said sadly, as she brushed one of his bangs out of his face. He didn't react to her touch, telling her he still wasn't conscious.

"You know... you can right?" It was Musa who'm had said this.

Flora looked at her in surprise as she landed on her right shoulder.

"We learned about it in Widgits class too, don't you remember?"  she added.

Flora gave her a puzzling look.

"A fairy song can have healing powers if the connection is strong enough. " She repeated in a voice that sounded remarkably like their teacher. It made her chuckle but it also made her think.

"Well, a fairies tears too, but I don't think you are much in a crying mood?" She asked questioningly.

They both looked at the boy. Who'm still seemed to be in pain, because he was pulling a face that resembled that.

"But I don't even know him." Flora was still looking at the boy. "And I can't sing." She added with a pained face towards her blue haired sister.

Musa only looked angry at that statement and Flora recalled all of the singing lessons and pains she had to endure to prepare for the preparation of the festival.

"I think it will work, and you still owe us a song though." Bloom was flying in front her face now and gave her a wink.

Flora could only smile at that. She heard the sound of rain falling on the bubble and closed her eyes listening to it.

"I'll help you out." Musa magically made a small flute appear out of nowhere and held it in front of her.

She looked at the boy once more and put his head on her lap with a small blush. She  breathed in deeply before she started humming the beginnings of a song and as soon as Musa joined in she started singing.

As she did, she started glowing a little. She put her hand on his cheek and soon after, he started glowing too. She slowly saw the smudges from his face disappearing and his hair was growing longer again from where it had been burned. His breathing was also growing more steady.

Flora however didn't really noticed the changes anymore. She didn't even notice the cloths around his hands had disappeared and reattached itself again on his ripped sleeve. Even his pants showed no burned marks on it anymore. She was so focussed on his face, she was rubbing his cheek with her thumb and even dared to touch his under lip. She even forgot what she was singing.

Stella took Blooms unexpecting arm in hers and started fanning her hand in front of her face as if it was too hot. This was too much for her loving heart to take!

* * *

 

Helia heard a soft sound that grew louder as he tried to pay attention to it. It sounded pleasant to his ears at first, before her realised it was beautiful.

He felt a warm sensation inside of him as he awoke. He didn't open his eyes immediately. He felt himself growing stronger and the pain in his body was disappearing.

He felt his head was resting on something soft, as did his cheek. Moaning in effort, he tried to open his eyes. He put his hand on the soft spot on his cheek, only to feel that a hand was already present.

He slowly opened his eyes, curious as to whom it belonged.

As he opened them he felt a little surprised. An angel was sitting next to him. No, he was on her lap!  
She was bathed in a soft glow as she was singing to him. Her light brown hair waving up as he felt the warmth go through his body. Behind her blonde bangs, her green eyes where sparkling in the glow and her slightly flustered cheeks seemed to make her even more beautiful.

He wanted to speak to her, but he was afraid to interrupt her song. Was he in heaven?

He got the answer soon. As he heard his name being called by someone else. It seemed far away, but his angel had heard it too, because she stopped singing and looked the other way, was that panic on her face?

He wanted to say something to her, but as soon as he had opened his mouth to speak, she had disappeared. Without even a poof! He felt instantly awaken as his head hit the ground in a rather rough way and rain fell on his face, giving him a much needed cold shower.

"uugh" He moaned as he sat up, he was rubbing the back of his head.

He heard his name again and saw his oldest brother run to him. He was soaked from head to toe and was holding an axe in his hand. He was followed by his other brothers and... Artu?!

The wolf easily passed Sky and ran towards him. She pounced him back down as soon as she got close and tried to lick his face.  
Helia just laughed it off as he tried his hardest to keep the animal away from his face and to keep sitting up. He patted her on her head in reply. "Good to see you are safe." He said as he put his forehead against hers.

His brothers had caught up to the fast wolf they all seemed to be panting due to the effort.

Sky kneeled next to him and put his axe down on the ground. "Dude! Are you okay?" he asked as he put his hand on Helia's shoulder.

"Yes, Sky, thank you." Helia smiled at him.

Sky just sat down in relief and looked up in the air panting.

"But why though." Helia looked at his red haired brother as he pondered about the answer.

"Not that it's not good off course..." He added in reply to his brother's angry stares, he waved his hands in front of him. After all, he was the second in line to dash after Sky as soon as they had found the axe. "But how did you make it across, that." He pointed at the huge tree still lying behind his youngest brother.

"I..." Helia started. "I don't know." He looked up at Riven with questioning eyes.

"One minute I feel like I'm about to die and the fire is all around me and the next I wake up here, startled by the rain that suddenly fell down my face." He pulled up his knees and rested his arms on it pensively.

"Don't you remember anything?" Roy bowed down over him. He was standing on the exact same spot the girl was sitting. The girl.

"I remember... an angel?" He said a little unsure not looking up.

"An angel?" Timmy looked at his brothers questioningly. They too seemed to not understand where this was coming from. But they allowed him to continue.

"Yes, she was here, she was beautiful. And... she was singing." He felt a little blood rush to his face, he tried to not let the blush get to its destination. The effort gave him a headache and he felt himself get a little dizzy. He put his hand to his forehead followed up by an "urgh".

Brandon just chuckled a little. "I think you just hit your head to hard, man!" He bowed down in front of him and offered a hand.

Helia looked at the hand pensively before taking it with a smile. "Yeah, probably." He stumbled a little while getting up. He allowed Roy and Sky grab his arms as he was about to fall back. Maybe he did hit his head he thought as his brothers helped him walk towards the car. He looked back one more time. He tried to remember how the girl looked like, but every time he tried, she got more blurry.

 He knew one thing though. As the image of the angel was disappearing from his mind, he still would remember the last lyrics of the song she was singing. He had never heard the song before and It felt as if they were directed to and for him alone.

"I wish I could be part of your world too..." He whispered with a sad smile.

* * *

 

"Go Artu, Follow them, and report back to me as soon as you can." The guard patted the snout of her companion as it left the bush they were hiding in and watched her follow the group of men.

She turned to the sisters. "I can't believe how lucky you were no one saw you! But that was way too dangerous! What were you thinking?!"

The sisters seemed to not really mind the guards yelling because they were too exhausted to even reply. They were all sitting on the ground, drained of their magic. Flora however seemed to sit on a leaf, watching the road not even paying attention to the lecture. She had was holding her legs towards her body with her hands lazily.

"I'm happy the spell wore of when it did though, a few seconds longer and Flora would have been seen. That was some amazing magic." Roxy added, making the sisters look at her hopefully.

Roxy was the one that pushed them all into the bush as soon as the boys were coming back. She was riding Artu the whole time to see if she could help in some way with the boys, so she knew they were coming. She didn't have time to be shocked at Flora's size because she had turned back as soon as she had set eyes on her.

"Listen" She said to the sisters. "We'll tell no one about what happened today. The queen must never know about this. You know of nothing, I know of nothing. And it will be our little secret."

They all nodded towards Roxy and turned to Flora in union to see how she was doing.

Flora was still staring at the road. She had seen the boy look back at her and hoped he would see her, but it was in vain. She was now watching an empty road and started humming the ending to the song she didn't get to finish.

* * *

 

"UGH! I really hate those stupid pixies! They keep ruining everything!" a pair of brown eyes reflected on a glass orb that was showing Flora sitting on the leaf.

"No kidding, they totally made my storm look like a useless prank." A pair of dark blue eyes joined her in the orb.

The brown ones left as did the owner. She started pacing around as her brown long hair moving around as she did.

The dark blue ones also left the orb only leaving the little fairy in them, and a light blue pair of eyes.

"Chill Darcy, you'll knock over bottles when you wave your hair like that." The curly purple haired woman said. She was the owner of the dark blue pair of eyes.

"Chill?" Darcy turned towards the purple haired women, she was wearing gloves that had almost the same colour as the purple haired ones hair. She pointed her finger. "If you had gone and conjured up that storm of yours sooner, Stormy, it would have worked! But no! You needed to give them time to escape!"

"Hey! It takes up time to do that when you are so far away! And I didn't see you do anything today!" Stormy retorted, crossing her arms.

Darcy only replied to that with an angry face.

"Will you two be quiet! I'm trying to think." Someone had said. It was not a question.

"Icy?" Stormy asked to the owner of the light blue pair of eyes.

Icy, who was sitting quietly on her chair next to the orb had her arms and her legs crossed. She had closed her eyes to think.

She suddenly started laughing really hard. Her tight white ponytail bouncing as she did.

Darcy and Stormy looked at each other questioningly wondering if their oldest sister had finally lost her mind.

"What is so funny?" Darcy asked her, as she sat down again to the chair right of Icy.

Icy just kept on laughing. It wasn't a pleasant laugh.

When Stormy had sat down again as well, her laugh faded.

"She in love." Icy had said with her mouth into a sneer.

The other two simply looked at her and then to the orb, it was showing how the little fairy stood up and joined her sisters to go home.

So? They wanted to say. But Icy all ready answered that.

"With a human." She had said.

It dawned to them and they started laughing as well.

"Their precious Queen is going to have a field day when she finds out" Stormy hiccupped between her laughs.

Icy simply smiled at this.

Darcy stopped laughing all of a sudden and had her mouth into a smile as well. "How are we going to tell her?" She sounded excited.

"We aren't." Icy simply said, as she stood up and walked towards her book, which was on a bookstand.

Darcy and Stormy looked at each other again questioningly.

"Why not?" Stormy got up from her chair and followed her.

"Because we are going to try it differently this time, besides, with their stupid principles and honesty, she will find out soon enough." Icy absent mindedly opened her book of spells and flipped through the pages, as if looking for something.

Darcy had to nod at this. "But, what are we going to do then?"

Icy turned towards her and smiled, but it was an evil smile, full of venom. "We are going to..." she thought again for a second. "Help them." she ended. As she turned her heel and took a few potions from one of her shelves, which was her whole room, because it was made out of shelves. Her potion room.

"HELP THEM?!" Darcy and Stormy had said in union. Now they knew Icy had lost her mind.

"Are you feeling all right?" Darcy quickly stood up from her seat to quick walk towards were Icy was standing, Stormy was just frozen on the spot next to the potion book.

"Oh yes, quite." Icy simply replied as she pushed a few bottles into Darcy's arms. She herself took one and walked towards her cattle. She quietly opened one of the bottles and emptied it fully into the pot.

"What are you making?" Darcy asked as she smelled something horrible come out of it. She had followed her towards the cattle.

Stormy had also come closer and stared into the pot.

Icy took one of the bottles out of Darcy's arms and let a few drops of it fall into her brew. A hiss came out of it and dark grew smoke came out. Icy turned towards her evil sisters as she brought up her evil smile again. Smoke had filled the room again and soon only her bright blue eyes were visible. They showed joy in them.

"Faragonda's Demise."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Godda love the Trix.  
> See you next time!  
> ~K


	7. Confessions and Confusions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I suck, so badly.  
> I’m slow. And I had a little writers block.  
> Not truly satisfied with this. But I needed it to continue with the story.  
> I have a few chapters written out already. But I’m not sure yet how to get there.   
> Sorry this had to take so long.   
> I hope you can forgive me!  
> For now! Please enjoy this next chapter!

“Basically? We ran away from home.” The blonde girl had gotten tired of the endless staring contest.

“STELLA?” The other girls yelled in her direction, looking shocked and outraged at the same time.

The boys simply exchanged glances but kept quiet.

“What? It’s not like they weren’t going to figure it out anyway.” She shrugged it off and leant with her arm on her knee, her hand was now cupping her chin and she was looking a bit bored. “I figured we’d better be as honest about this as we are allowed too. Lying leads to nothing.”

The girls fell quiet.

“She has a point.” Tecna had put her finger on her chin pensively. “That’s rather well thinking Stella.” She smiled.

“Always the surprise.” The blonde fanned her free hand her way, but smiled none the less.

“All right then, we’ll be honest, but truth be told, we shouldn’t be telling them everything you know.” Aisha cut in, uncrossing her arms and waving a finger.

“You think they know we are still here?” Roy whispered to Riven and Brandon, Helia overheard him and had to hide his chuckle with his hand.

“And what’s so funny mister?” Musa interrupted the girls’ bickering and turned to Helia.

“Nothing, nothing!” He waved his hands in front of him surprised. “It’s just that, you seem like really close.”

“So do you.” Flora smiled.

Again, Helia got caught off guard by the girls’ smile. But this time it simply made him blush a little at her stare.

“So uhm. Where are you from then?” He asked no one in particular. But he did turn to Flora a little.

Flora looked at her sisters, as if looking for confirmation. After exchanging glances. Bloom nodded in her direction.

“We are from the forest?” she answered him a little unsure.

“The forest?” Riven cut in. “People live in that isolated piece of-…” an elbow from Sky hit him in his sides to interrupt him, “Uh, place?” The redhead corrected himself while eyeing his blonde brother.

“Well… we do at least.” Musa answered him as truthfully as she could. Not implying they weren’t people either. “Or did.”

“I can see why you would run away.” Riven gave her an apologetic smile.

“Do you live there alone?” Roy asked.

“No, we live with our mom and some servants.” Aisha answered.

“Servants?” Brandon asked surprised. “So you are rich?”

Aisha gasped and slapped her hand in front of her mouth.

“So much for not saying everything.” Bloom sighed. Stella could only chuckle.

“Well… we are not, not Rich, per se, sort off…” Flora tried to help.

“Honey, you are only making it worse.” Stella laughed even harder and put her arm around the brunette.

Tecna facepalmed: “Oh, sweet cheese and crackers.”

“It’s okay, you don’t need to tell us if you don’t want to.” Timmy interrupted the awkwardness.

“No, actually, It’s better that you do. That way you might even help.” Tecna continued.

“How can we help?” Sky asked her.

“Ok, I got this girls” Tecna breathed. They all stared at her surprised. “Short version? It goes like this..” Tecna had been planning most of the things in her head from the moment Stella had blurted everything out.

“We ran away from home, because our mother doesn’t like… how to put it. The real world?” she turned to her sisters, as if affirming it was correct.

The others nodded with a smile. Even without her gadgets Tecna was still the smartest when it came to quick thinking.

“Mother is a little… overprotective of us, and we grew a little tired from it when she scolded Flora here for the umpteenth time for taking interest in hu-.” She suddenly coughed as if interrupting herself.

The others looked at her surprised.

“Hu-…” She tried again. But alas, no sound came out.

“Hububbs!” She almost yelled with a red face and balled hands.

“I took an interest in Hububbs?” Flora chuckled.

Aisha quickly caught on. “So that is what happens!” She slapped her fist in the palm of her other hand.

Stella also got the gist and started laughing really hard. “Oh my God! Let me try!”

“Hu-…. Hu-…. Hutzpahs!” Startled by the strange word she slapped her hand in front of her mouth.

“What the hell is a hutzpah?” Musa chuckled.

“You mean: What the hell is going on?” Riven cut in.

The girls turned to the boys, their faces where a little funny as they were each looking at them with a confused look. Obviously, all of the Winx had figured out their mother’s spell had kicked in when Tecna tried to say humans. But how to explain this to them? Simple… they couldn’t.

“Let’s just say Tecna needs to change her wording.” Bloom scratched the back of her head.

Tecna nodded, and the boys once more exchanged glances nervously. They had gotten themselves involved into some odd situations before. But this one? Indescribable.

“Uh, right… please continue?” Timmy gestured to the pinkette.

“So uhm. Flora wanted to know more about… others… yes, other people.” She nodded contently. The others sighed in relieve only confusing the boys even more.

“But mother didn’t agree with that, and well... We ran away to help Flora in her wish.”

Tecna sighed and sat down. That took more from her than she thought. Flora put her hand on her shoulder gently and smiled. “Thank you Tec.”

Tecna could only smile back.

“So let me get this straight.” Brandon added pensively. “You wanted to meet others. Does that mean you hadn’t met anyone else?”

“Like Tecna said. Mother was-… is a bit overprotective.” Bloom answered with a shrug.

“So… you’ve never been outside of the forest before?” He continued.

They shook their heads. “Save for today, not really. Though not without lack of trying.” Flora smiled sadly.

The boys exchanged glances.

“Tecna?” Timmy suddenly asked.

Tecna looked up.

“You wanted to ask what a hospital was, didn’t you?” He smiled supportingly. He suddenly felt really bad for these girls. They all did.

Tecna turned bright red but nodded none the less.

“It’s a place you go when you aren’t feeling well and doctors try to make you better.”

The Winx turned to Timmy wide eyed.

“You have such a thing?” Musa asked him in wonder.

Sky chuckled at her innocence. Though one thing was still bothering him, as Timmy explained to them what doctors were and how they worked there, he pensively wondered if it was all right to ask. Bloom noticed his silence. “Something on your mind, Sky?”

The blonde boy got startled by the mention of his name. Feeling a bit flattered she remembered, he turned to her with a smile. As Timmy was still explaining things in the background he decided it wouldn’t hurt to try. “This card. Where did you get it?” He showed the golden card once more.

Bloom looked a bit taken aback and turned to Stella. Who’m was bombarding Timmy with questions. Timmy himself had started to notice how close the girls were being to him and felt himself get a little scared and backed into a corner near the door. Brandon, Riven and Roy started laughing at his distress. Flora and Helia however, where looking at Bloom and Sky.

Bloom turned to Sky again. “I’m not sure if I can answer that question. Let’s just say it was a gift from someone who helped us escape. Our guide so to speak.”

Flora nodded to Bloom with a smile. Bloom had smiled back.

Sky nodded also. He was still wondering a lot of things but they had been prying enough. He returned the card to Bloom and smiled. “Thank you for telling us.”

Bloom accepted the card quietly. Feeling a bit bad about not telling everything. But if this conversation made one thing clear. It’s that they simply weren’t allowed to. She knew the others felt the same.

Brandon, who was having great fun in watching Timmy’s dispair, decided it was time to free the shy boy from his burden.

“All righty, settle down ladies.” He chuckled as Timmy sighed openly.

“So, you needed our help with something?” He continued.

“Well… yes…” Flora started, she was now fiddling her fingers.

“First of all, thank you for saving us.” She remembered her etiquette.

They nodded with a smile.

“So we were kind of wondering, if you had the time off course!” she interrupted herself. “If you would like to show us a little of what the world is like… outside of the forest that is.” Flora was turning bright red.

Helia thought it was rather cute and wanted to make her feel more at ease with him, so he did the next best thing. He stood up, walked towards her and kneeled. Effectively silencing the room.

Startled by his own bravery he took her hands in his. “We would love too.” He smiled at her sincerely.

Flora in her turn turned bright red and felt like her brain had been fried. The Winx simply chuckled and Stella had to hold in a squeal. This was going to be way too easy. If only Flora could get a grip on herself.

“Right guys?” He turned his head to the other boys with a huge smile. He knew they felt the same way as him. Concern for these girls, about leaving them alone into the harsh world, and adventure at the same time. As they knew they wouldn’t be bored anymore with them around.

“Absolutely!” Roy made a thumbs up. The others joined him with “Yeah’s” and “All right’s” or “You can count on us’s”

“They don’t call us the specialists for nothing right?” Brandon winked.

“Specialists?” Aisha added with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah. We didn’t liked to be called princes.” Roy shrugged.

“And hence we all have something special we like to do, they decided to call us the specialists.” Riven ended his sentence.

“Neat.” Musa chuckled. “We are the Winx.” She had made a heart shape with her two point fingers that was almost as big as her upper torso. She ended with her arms in a cross shaped form.

“Winx huh? Pleasure to meet you.” Timmy smiled.

“Likewise.” Stella smiled back.

“So Helia, I suggest you let go of the girl’s hands now, before you make her faint. Remember, they aren’t use to other people. Never mind close proximity” Roy chuckled as he put his hand on his youngest brother’s shoulder, knowing it would embarrass the young lad.

Helia turned to Flora again surprised and immediately had let go of her when he saw her fall backwards onto the bed as she had forgotten how to breathe.

“Flora?!” The Winx all dived towards Flora who had now fallen backwards.

“Sorry…” Helia blushed a little awkwardly as he put his hand behind his head.

“So!” Sky cleared his throat.

Bloom was still fanning Flora’s face as she slowly came to again. The others turned to him.

“Who’s hungry?”

 

* * *

 

“So it was built in the 15th century, which makes everything quite old.” Timmy shoved his glasses back into the bridge of his nose with a single press of a finger.

“But they modernised it quite recently and they even made a wing just for us. “To give us the feel of us youngsters”, dad used to say.” Helia cut in.

They were walking around on the second floor of the castle and where given a tour from the room they woke up in. The tour had only started a few steps and Sky, Timmy and Helia had taken over in turns about explaining everything they ran into or whatever the girls asked them.

Riven, Roy and Brandon lingered behind a bit, they had heard the history off the castle a thousand times before in their history classes and had grown rather tired of it. Stella ended the line and was suppressing yawn. Brandon had noticed this.

“Not enjoying yourself princess?” He chuckled her way.

Stella waved away her new nickname with a ‘humph’.

“Just a little tired still. We’re not used to walking this much.” She sighed. Although she had to admit, she wasn’t paying attention to anything the boys where saying.

“Who’s that?” she suddenly asked, pointing at an old portrait as they entered a hall of sorts.

The painting was huge. Stella could fit in it three times, so it was very hard not to miss.

“Ah, good old grandmother.” Brandon chuckled.

In the portrait there was a woman. She was sitting sideways into a chair with her hands on her lap. She had a stern face and a collar of some sorts that was as standing up as high as her head.  
The woman had a horrible burgundy coloured dress with a bright golden pendant hanging over it.  
Her excessive purple make-up made her eyes look a little yellow and the purple thing on top which portrayed her hair, Stella could only describe as a turd.

She chuckled at herself. “Well, she seems lovely.”

“I’ll say.” Aisha crossed her arms.

The boys exchanged glances with a sly smile.

“From what we heard. She really was.” Riven stared at the portrait himself. He always hated the thing.

“Heard?” Musa asked him.

“Yeah, the only one that really knew her was Sky, she disappeared short after Helia was born.” Roy explained.

“She wasn’t that bad, you guys.” Sky cut in.

“No, off course not! It’s not like she called us a menace and the worst thing that could happen to the kingdom. Or that she cursed mother for having yet another son?” Brendan chuckled.

“According to the staff though, no one seemed to mind her disappearance.” Timmy helped.

“Queen Griffin the first.” Tecna read below the painting.

“She looks a little pale, doesn’t she?” Flora asked more to herself then to the others.

Helia shrugged: “According to grandfather, she always looked like that. Though that’s about all you’re going to get out of him. He never talks about her.”

The boys continued walking and the girls took one more look at the painting before continuing after them. The came into another hall that was a lot larger than the last one.

The sight was impressive. A really big oaken door was the centrepiece of the big room. Around it where various paintings and a big golden staircase that was big enough to let an army in. The staircase was on both sides of the wall.

Tecna leaned on the railing with awe as she tried to look below.

“Uhm, carefull miss Tecna.” Timmy put his hand on her shoulder as he saw her almost completely topple over the railing.

Tecna stared at him, startled by the close proximity.  
They both blushed a little as Timmy quickly retracted his hand.

“Oh Relax, Tecna’s not going to fall that easily.” Musa chuckled, amused by their shyness.

“Okay, now that’s cute.” Bloom was staring at a big painting with a smile. It was directly behind them and it held all 6 of the brothers in it.

Sky, Brandon and Roy where standing upright and looking sideways at Riven and Timmy who’m had fallen over next to them. On the other side was Helia who was on the verge of falling with them and had small smile on his face.

The other girls also let out a chuckle at the painting.

“Oh god, I hate that thing.” Riven sighed.

“You should, It’s your fault it ended up there in the first place.” Timmy crossed his arms and glared at Riven.

“My fault?!” Riven stepped closer to the orangehead. “You’re the one that decided to trip and drag me with you.”

“You put a spider in my shoe!” Timmy replied, also stepping closer to Riven, their noses almost touching.

“Now, now boys.” Sky cut in and put a hand on both their shoulders. “Mom loved it so all is fine.”

“So much even that she had the picture enlarged into a painting.” Brandon chuckled.

“And hang it into the hallway for the world to see.” Roy finished, pinching his temple while sighing.

The girls chuckled.

“Anyway, the dining hall is this way.” Helia ushered the girls down the large stairs a little embarrassed by the huge painting. “You must be starving.”

-

After a long, full-course meal, in which the King and Queen where absent, The girls where groaning from having so much to eat.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much food!” Stella rubbed her belly while shuffling out of the big room.

“I’m not eating again for 3 days.” Aisha grumbled.

“You didn’t have to eat so much then.” Brendan chuckled.

“But it was so good!” Musa explained.

“And so much new tastes” Flora happily bounced.

Helia smiled at her.

Even though they were complaining now, the girls had shown great fun in trying out every little item on the table and asking what was what.

After Flora had tried the fork as a hairbrush and Tecna had found their grandfathers old pipe on the bookshelf, she tried to use it as an instrument to blow, leaving Timmy who tried to explain sooted with ashes, they decided it was best to first try and explain table manners to the 6 curious girls.

It went remarkably well, until the food was actually served on the plates. Their curiousity took the better of them when they finger tried the food.

They Specialist decided their brunch would mainly consist as small snack bite sized meals, which turned out to take in the whole noon. But they had a lot of fun.

“Would you girls like to see more of the castle? We can show you the guest rooms?” Sky pointed behind him as they had entered the big hall again. There was doubt in his voice that didn’t go unnoticed by anyone

“I don’t know if it’s such a good idea to-“ Tecna began.

“SOUNDS LIKE A GREAT IDEA!” Stella cut in, pushing Techna and Musa out of the way. She then turned to Flora with a wink.

Flora’s eyes widened and blushed slightly, she tried to turn away only to look straight at the person she was trying to avoid.

Helia caught her gaze and rose an eyebrow, but he quickly turned it to a smile. “Do you guys have any place to sleep yet?”

Aisha was the one to answer that. “Well no… but I figured most towns had places for visitors to spend the night, right?”

“We could show you around town first before you make a decision.” Brandon finished. “After all, we told you we’d help-“  
He got cut off by a small scratching sound by the door. Timmy was already walking towards the big door before they all turned to hear the sound better. “What’s that?”

As Timmy opened the door, he got pounced by a big hairy wolf type dog.

“ARTHU” Everyone said at the same time.  
They all turned to each other surprised.

“You know this dog?” Riven asked as he and Musa looked at each other surprised.  
“Yes!” she answered excitedly. “Do you?”  
“Obviously, he’s in our house isn’t he?” He rose an eyebrow while he crossed his arms.  
Musa did the same. “But he’s our dog.”

This startled the boys.  
“He’s yours?” Helia asked as he sat down next to the dog to pet it.

“Actually, he’s from a friend of ours” Flora joined him with a smile. “But we lost him a while back.” She didn’t specify when off course. That was for the boys to figure out. She didn’t like lying to them, so decided just not to give out all of the information. This was the best she could do. She proceeded to pet him, but was actually searching for Roxy, who should be there somewhere. She quickly saw her hide behind one of his ears.

“That makes sense actually.” Timmy stood up again dusting his pants off. “We did find him in the forest.”  
Roy nodded. “Yes, that’s true. And he followed us after the fire.”

“That was you guys?” Aisha pointed to Roy as if to emphasize the whole group.  
The blonde raised his hands in defence. “No! We were just celebrating Helia’s birthday. A storm caught us off guard.”

Aisha squinted her eyes at him as if saying she didn’t believe him.  
She would never tell anyone. But she was actually having fun, acting all suspicious towards this dense boy.

Suddenly the dog perched his ears and stood up straight.  
“What’s wrong boy?” Helia asked him as he let him go.

The dog turned to Stella and let out his tongue excitedly.

“Oh-uh.” Stella widened her eyes as she put a step backwards.“ I-I don’t have any cookies anymore!” she panicked. The dog darted off towards her and pounced her to the floor. She didn’t even have time to turn around before the dog jumped her stomach, and started licking her face.

Stella was trying so hard to try and get the big hairy creature off her and out of her face that she almost didn’t even hear the small voice talking to her: “..-e need to talk… NOW!” she suddenly heard.

While everyone was laughing at her, Stella froze, her eyes scanning for her fairy friend at lightning speed.

Brandon however, stepped closer to her as he helped to get the animal off her. “Are you okay?” He asked when it finally stopped to lick her face and sat next to her. The brunette was offering her his hand.

Stella wiped her face with her arm and took his hand a little dazed, drinking in the new information. He pulled her up before she suddenly doubled over. “Ohhh, my stomach.” She groaned.

Musa came up to Stella. “You okay, girl?”

“Yeah, just… Arthu hit me in the stomach. I think the food’s coming back.” She sighed as she held her arm around her stomach. She faked a chocking sound and fanned her arm towards Brandon, as if she was looking something to hold on too.

Brandon offered his arm and she took it without hesitation, leaning on it. “It there a bathroom nearby?” She groaned.

Brandon patted her shoulder a little awkwardly but nodded. “Sure, I’ll show you-“.  
“NO!” Stella suddenly yelled. “I mean. This could get nasty, just show me the way.” She smiled awkwardly.

Brandon rose an eyebrow. “It’s back that way and then turn left twice. It’s not hard to miss.” He pointed behind her. This was a little odd, but who was he to question a sick person.

“Thank you, you guys can go on without me.” Stella waved at them as she turned the way Brandon pointed. She then coughed again. “This could take a while.”

The blonde girl started running in the direction Brandon had indicated as the rest just looked at her strangely. It was even weirder that Arthu seemed to run right after her.

“O-oookay?” Aisha had put a hand in her side and continued to stare at the now empty corridor.

Bloom simply shrugged and smiled. “Shell be fine.” Bloom had seen Stella fake illness a million times and quickly caught on to her act. Knowing she would have a perfectly good reason for this, she tried to rationalise the situation as much as possible.

“You where going to show us the rest of the castle?” She had turned to Sky with a smile.

“uhm, sure.” Sky shook his head to shake off whatever happened just now and smiled back. “It’s this way”

* * *

 

After showing both the south and east wings of the castle (the boys’ rooms and the guest rooms) they found themselves near the hallway again. The tour had taken up most of the afternoon and Stella had still not joined them.

When they entered the big room, they found their blonde sister sitting hunched on the left side of the big staircase.

“Stella! There you are!” The girls all ran towards her quickly as soon as they laid eyes on her.

Bloom kneeled in front of her as the rest stood around their sister. “How are you feeling? Did you… finish what you had to do?” she riddled at her.

Stella rose an eyebrow with a small amused smile and nodded. “Yes, everything is under control now.” She puzzled back.

The boys joined them near her.

“I’m sorry I ruined the outing.” She pouted a little.

“It’s okay, princess.” Brandon winked at her. “We’re just happy you are feeling better now.”

Stella rose a suspicious eyebrow at the brown haired boy, but that said boy only smile at her innocently.

“Timmy.” Tecna turned to the man she just addressed. “You think there is time to still go into town and check for that “hotel” thing?”

Timmy himself put a pensive hand to his chin. ”I don’t know, the hotels will still be open, but most of them will be booked for the night. I think you might have more luck tomorrow.”

“You’re not just trying to keep us here, are you?” Aisha put her fist to her both sides and regarded Timmy.

“No! Off course we’re not.” Roy cut in. “Timmy is right, we can’t really have you wondering around town all night looking for a place to sleep.” He held up both his hands in defence.

“The boy has a point Aisha, we know nothing of this place yet, and we aren’t exactly knowledgeable in the dangers either.” Musa copied Timmy’s movement by placing her hand on her chin.

“I agree with them to be honest. I’d like to rest a bit more before we head out again, who knows where we end up making rash decisions.” Stella waved her finger before her acting all wise and grown up.

Aisha let out a sigh and regarded the group in front of her. It was like she was surrounded by a bunch of children, looking at her with big eyes.

“Oh All right. But just one day more, and then we go look for this “hotel” thing. Got it?”

A cheer rose through the hall.

“And no more ganging up on me!” Aisha tried to get above the noise, but Musa simply put her arm around her shoulder, laughing out loud.

Flora watched the group with a smile. She turned to Helia shyly only to notice to boy was already staring at her.

Both a little startled she smiled at him.” Looks like you’ll have to put up with us a little longer, your highness.”

Helia could only smile back at her and bowed. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. And please, Flora…” He took her hand and raised it to his lips. He didn’t really kiss it, but the gesture was enough to leave her blushing. “Call me Helia.”

Flora could only turn cherry red and quickly retreated her hand. Tecna hooked her arm around the youngest sister before either of them could reply to each other and pulled her towards the retreating crowd, which were on their way towards the guest chambers again. She started asking her if she wanted to share a room with her because the rooms had two beds in them.

Helia followed them slowly as he regarded the group before him. His eyes kept falling on a certain brunette and he couldn’t help but smile as he noticed how pretty she looked when she smiled. It startled him a little about how much he wanted to know about her.   
What where her hobbies? Did she like flowers or nature? Does she like art? Would she like any of his hobbies?  
Quietly shaking his head he looked out a window they passed. The sun was setting in the distance, colouring the sky a beautiful shade of orange. He thought about his saviour, where she could be. Why did she save only him? Why did she sing to him? Would he remember the song? Everything started to fade even faster and it frustrated him a little. But not as much as before. Perhaps this had to do with a certain group of girls that had come to his doorstep and into their lives at an alarming rate.

“Helia?”

A soft voice shook him out of his reveree and he turned his head towards the sound.

“Are you coming?”

He looked at the girl in front of him. She had half turned towards him and her smile once again made his heart skip a beat.

“Sure.”

He quickened his pace as he smiled at her and started walking next to her as they continued their way to the east wing.

He couldn’t help but silently wonder if it wasn’t the group of girls that had come into his live that made a difference. But just this one girl alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still have much in store for this story.  
> Thank you for being so patient with me. I promise it gets better!


End file.
